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PRINTER'S NO. 28
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA
SENATE BILL
No.
47
Session of
2017
INTRODUCED BY WILLIAMS, JANUARY 12, 2017
REFERRED TO STATE GOVERNMENT, JANUARY 12, 2017
AN ACT
Amending the act of June 3, 1937 (P.L.1333, No.320), entitled
"An act concerning elections, including general, municipal,
special and primary elections, the nomination of candidates,
primary and election expenses and election contests; creating
and defining membership of county boards of elections;
imposing duties upon the Secretary of the Commonwealth,
courts, county boards of elections, county commissioners;
imposing penalties for violation of the act, and codifying,
revising and consolidating the laws relating thereto; and
repealing certain acts and parts of acts relating to
elections," in ballots, further providing for form of
ballots, printing ballots, stubs and numbers; and, in voting
machines, further providing for form of ballot labels on
voting machines and for forms.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. Section 1004 of the act of June 3, 1937
(P.L.1333, No.320), known as the Pennsylvania Election Code, is
amended to read:
Section 1004. Form of Ballots; Printing Ballots; Stubs;
Numbers.--[From] (a) Except as provided in subsection (b), from
the lists furnished by the Secretary of the Commonwealth under
the provisions of sections 915 and 984, and from petitions and
papers filed in their office, the county election board shall
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print the official primary and election ballots in accordance
with the provisions of this act: Provided, however, That in no
event, shall the name of any person consenting to be a candidate
for nomination for any one office, except the office of judge of
a court of common pleas, the Philadelphia Municipal Court or the
Traffic Court of Philadelphia, or the office of school director
in districts where that office is elective or the office of
justice of the peace be printed as a candidate for such office
upon the official primary ballot of more than one party. All
ballots for use in the same election district at any primary or
election shall be alike. They shall be at least six inches long
and four inches wide, and shall have a margin extending beyond
any printing thereon. They shall be printed with the same kind
of type (which shall not be smaller than the size known as
"brevier" or "eight point body") upon white paper of uniform
quality, without any impression or mark to distinguish one from
another, and with sufficient thickness to prevent the printed
matter from showing through. Each ballot shall be attached to a
stub, and all the ballots for the same election district shall
be bound together in books of fifty, in such manner that each
ballot may be detached from its stub and removed separately. The
ballots for each party to be used at a primary shall be bound
separately. The stubs of the ballots shall be consecutively
numbered, and in the case of primary ballots, the number shall
be preceded by an initial or abbreviation designating the party
name. The number and initial or abbreviation which appears upon
the stub shall also be printed in the upper right hand corner of
the back of the ballot, separated from the remainder of the
ballot by a diagonal perforated line so prepared that the upper
right hand corner of the back of the ballot containing the
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number may be detached from the ballot before it is deposited in
the ballot box and beside that corner shall also be printed,
"Remove numbered stub immediately before depositing your ballot
in ballot box."
(b) In all elections for the office of judge of a court of
common pleas in a city of the first class, the Philadelphia
Municipal Court or the Traffic Court of Philadelphia where there
are more candidates than persons to be nominated or elected for
a particular office and the same office appears on ballots in
more than one ward, the order of the names of the candidates
shall appear on ballots as follows:
(1) In printing ballots for each ward, relative positions of
names for each nomination or office shall be changed as many
times as there are candidates for that nomination or office, and
to the extent reasonably possible, a candidate's name shall not
appear at the top of the list more times than the name of any
other candidate.
(2) Names of candidates shall be arranged alphabetically by
surname in the first ward. In the second ward, names shall
appear in the same order as in the first ward, except that the
name at the top of the ballot in the first ward shall appear at
the bottom of the ballot in the second ward. The rotation shall
continue in the same manner for remaining wards.
(3) For purposes of this section, each absentee ballot shall
be treated as a separate ward.
Section 2. Sections 1110 and 1109-A of the act are amended
by adding subsections to read:
Section 1110. Form of Ballot Labels on Voting Machines.--
* * *
(n) Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, the
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names of candidates on a ballot shall be arranged in accordance
with section 1004(b).
Section 1109-A. Forms.--* * *
(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, the
names of candidates on a ballot shall be arranged in accordance
with section 1004(b).
Section 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
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