Supporters of a referendum to study Lackawanna County's form of government are voluntarily withdrawing petitions containing more than 1,300 of the signatures they submitted to get the question on the May 21 ballot, citing procedural errors.
The decision to pull the petitions came to light Monday as insurance executive Chuck Volpe, who is spearheading the government study commission initiative, lost his bid for a preliminary injunction against the city law firm leading the challenge against the referendum.
A county court panel consisting of President Judge Thomas Munley and Judges Vito Geroulo and Terrence Nealon heard more than an hour of argument in what became a preview of a hearing set for next Monday that will determine which ballot question or questions will go before primary voters.
Mr. Volpe's attorney, Frank Ruggiero, said proponents of the government study referendum are withdrawing 72 of the 280 petitions filed to place the question on the ballot after an exhaustive review uncovered "procedural defects."
"We pulled every one we believed were close calls or ties," he told the judges.
The total number of signatures involved is 1,332, leaving 4,769 still on file at the Department of Elections. That is still well in excess of the 3,490 needed to get the referendum on the ballot.
But attorneys for Wright & Reihner, which is challenging the proposed government study initiative, told the judges they have already identified another 1,070 signatures they believe are defective.
The law firm contends an overwhelming majority of the 6,101 signatures collected by the Volpe camp are invalid, mostly because of improperly circulated or executed petitions. In many cases, it is alleged the individual who circulated the petition was not the one who signed the required affidavit as the circulator of record.
Aside from those issues, Wright & Reihner has found 505 signatures by people who are not registered voters of the county, attorney Frank Tunis told the court. In addition, there are 565 signatures that may have been forged, he said.
The judges, who are also acting as the Board of Elections, denied Mr. Volpe's request for an injunction to bar Wright & Reihner from having further contact with people who circulated the petitions or the notaries who witnessed the circulators' signatures, saying they had no authority to do so.
In letters last week, Wright & Reihner told circulators and notaries they may be subpoenaed to testify under oath about the validity of the petitions at next week's hearing.
"This was really a shotgun approach to scare people," Mr. Ruggiero told the court.
While denying the injunction request, the judges also warned Mr. Tunis and attorney George Reihner that they would not allow Monday's hearing to become what Judge Nealon characterized as a "fishing expedition."
"The last thing we want to do is waste this court's time," Mr. Tunis said.
He and Mr. Reihner agreed they would seek to introduce testimony only from circulators and notaries for whom they had discovered evidence of noncompliance with the Election Code.
Contact the writer: dsingleton@timesshamrock.com