Clearfield County Office of Elections Notes Requirements for Write-In Candidates

CLEARFIELD – With the Primary Election creeping up, the Clearfield County Office of Elections has issued requirements for write-in candidates.

The office asks that you:

• Please notify the Election Office at least 2 weeks before an election that you will be running an active write-in campaign.  This will insure that we will accumulate your votes.
• A letter stating that you will accept votes under the names of…………

i.e.  –    Joseph P. Smith

            Joe Smith

            Joseph Peter Smith

            Joe Smyth

            Etc.

These names have to be within reason……..we will not accept J. Smith if there is more than one J. Smith (we don’t know whether it is Joseph, James, Jean, Jane, etc.) within a municipality or voting district.  Also, if you are a Jr. or Sr. and you both reside within the same district we will not accumulate those votes unless they specifically state Jr. or Sr.  We can not guess at the voter’s intent, it must be clear.

• As a write-in candidate you must have as many votes as signatures required to get your name on the ballot.  For example, if you are running for Township Supervisor and are running a write-in campaign you must have at least 10 votes and more than anyone else on the ballot or running a write-in to move on to the November election.  Anyone who gets their name on the ballot is required to have a certain number of signatures on their petition and you are required to have the same amount of votes.
  • Office required to get 100 signatures (votes)
    • All County Wide Offices
    • City of DuBois Offices
    • DuBois Area School District – District A 

Offices required to get 10 signatures (votes)

• School Directors
• Member of Council
• Auditors
• Supervisors
• Tax Collectors

• You can ask both Democrats and Republicans to write you in regardless of your party affiliation
• Write-in candidates are required to adhere to Campaign Finance Laws.  If you spend over $250.00 in a reporting period you are required to file a Campaign Finance Report.  Further information is available at the Election Office.
• If you are successful in your write-in campaign you will be required to file paper work and pay a filing fee, if applicable, (Purdon’s title 25 §2938.1), to this office before a specified date.  If you fail to do so your name will not appear on the November ballot if you won in the Primary or if you won in the November election and fail to file your paper work you will not be issued a Certificate of Election and will not be able to take office. 
• Please be aware that if you run a write-in campaign that it takes us several weeks to accumulate write-in votes.  We do not start the accumulation until the Friday after the election and depending on the number of write-ins could take up to a week or ten days to finish them.  You can however, go to the polls and look at the report posted there to see approximately how many votes you received.  Remember, these are unofficial totals until we certify the election which is generally 3 weeks after an election. 
• As always the Election Office is here to answer any other questions you may have, please do not hesitate to contact us at 814-765-2642 Extension 5053 or by e-mail: elections@clearfieldco.org.