PRINTER'S NO. 565
No. 532 Session of 1989
INTRODUCED BY GREENLEAF, HELFRICK, GREENWOOD AND FUMO,
FEBRUARY 15, 1989
REFERRED TO STATE GOVERNMENT, FEBRUARY 15, 1989
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of June 3, 1937 (P.L.1333, No.320), entitled
2 "An act concerning elections, including general, municipal,
3 special and primary elections, the nomination of candidates,
4 primary and election expenses and election contests; creating
5 and defining membership of county boards of elections;
6 imposing duties upon the Secretary of the Commonwealth,
7 courts, county boards of elections, county commissioners;
8 imposing penalties for violation of the act, and codifying,
9 revising and consolidating the laws relating thereto; and
10 repealing certain acts and parts of acts relating to
11 elections," providing for arrangement of names on ballots.
12 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
13 hereby enacts as follows:
14 Section 1. Section 1004 of the act of June 3, 1937
15 (P.L.1333, No.320), known as the Pennsylvania Election Code,
16 amended February 19, 1986 (P.L.29, No.11), is amended to read:
17 Section 1004. Form of Ballots; Printing Ballots; Stubs;
18 Numbers.--From the lists furnished by the Secretary of the
19 Commonwealth under the provisions of sections 915 and 984, and
20 from petitions and papers filed in their office, the county
21 election board shall print the official primary and election
22 ballots in accordance with the provisions of this act: Provided,
1 however, That in no event, shall the name of any person
2 consenting to be a candidate for nomination for any one office,
3 except the office of judge of a court of common pleas, the
4 Philadelphia Municipal Court or the Traffic Court of
5 Philadelphia, or the office of school director in districts
6 where that office is elective or the office of justice of the
7 peace be printed as a candidate for such office upon the
8 official primary ballot of more than one party. All ballots for
9 use in the same election district at any primary or election
10 shall be alike. They shall be at least six inches long and four
11 inches wide, and shall have a margin extending beyond any
12 printing thereon. They shall be printed with the same kind of
13 type (which shall not be smaller than the size known as
14 "brevier" or "eight point body") upon white paper of uniform
15 quality, without any impression or mark to distinguish one from
16 another, and with sufficient thickness to prevent the printed
17 matter from showing through. Each ballot shall be attached to a
18 stub, and all the ballots for the same election district shall
19 be bound together in books of fifty, in such manner that each
20 ballot may be detached from its stub and removed separately. The
21 ballots for each party to be used at a primary shall be bound
22 separately. The stubs of the ballots shall be consecutively
23 numbered, and in the case of primary ballots, the number shall
24 be preceded by an initial or abbreviation designating the party
25 name. The number and initial or abbreviation which appears upon
26 the stub shall also be printed in the upper right hand corner of
27 the back of the ballot, separated from the remainder of the
28 ballot by a diagonal perforated line so prepared that the upper
29 right hand corner of the back of the ballot containing the
30 number may be detached from the ballot before it is deposited in
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1 the ballot box and beside that corner shall also be printed,
2 "Remove numbered stub immediately before depositing your ballot
3 in ballot box." The names of all candidates for an office shall
4 be arranged in a group under the title of that office and shall
5 be rotated from one precinct to another, except on absentee
6 ballots. On absentee ballots the names of all candidates for an
7 office shall be arranged in a group under the title of that
8 office and shall be so alternated that each name shall appear,
9 insofar as may be reasonably possible, substantially an equal
10 number of times at the beginning, at the end and at each
11 intermediate place, if any, of the group in which such name
12 belongs.
13 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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