by peter e. bortner
Schuylkill County Court will not decide whether to hold a new primary election for the Hazleton Area school board, a judge ruled Monday.
In a two-page order, President Judge William E. Baldwin transferred the petition filed June 10 seeking a new vote for the board to Luzerne County Court.
By so ruling, Baldwin set the stage for Thursday's hearing in which Luzerne judges will decide whether an admitted mistake by its county's election bureau justifies overturning the results of the May 21 primary election.
Luzerne County Director of Elections Marisa Crispell failed to inform Schuylkill and Carbon counties that Steve Hahn had withdrawn from the race, and his name appeared on those counties' ballots in the primary.
Luzerne officials have admitted the mistake, proposed to mail absentee ballots to Schuylkill and Carbon citizens who voted in the primary for a new election in those two counties and offered to pay $10,000 for the new vote.
While most of the district is in Luzerne County, four of its municipalities - McAdoo borough and East Union, Kline and North Union townships - are in Schuylkill and two - Beaver Meadows borough and Banks Township - are in Carbon.
As of now, Jim Chapman, Clarence John, Robert Mehalick and Jared O'Donnell won on both the Republican and Democratic ballots.
The petitioners, including unsuccessful candidate Carmella Yenkevich, assert that Hahn received more than 500 votes total in Schuylkill and Carbon counties, thereby mandating a new election.
Baldwin gave three reasons for his ruling: The majority of the voters in Hazleton Area School District are from Luzerne, all the candidates who won in the primary are from Luzerne and all the people who filed the June 10 petition are from Luzerne.