Pennsylvania

JPZenger

(6,819 posts) Sun May 5, 2013, 08:16 AM May 2013

Perennial Republican Candidate Caught by County Election Board in a Web of Lies

Last edited Sun May 5, 2013, 11:24 AM - Edit history (1)

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-allentown-maher-district-court-20130502,0,3421792,full.story

Joseph Maher is an attorney who is a perennial Republican candidate in Lehigh County. His latest race is to become a Magisterial District Judge in Allentown. However, in order to hold the office, the PA. Constitution requires that he has lived in the district for one year. The County Election Board uncovered a web of his lies that tried to cover up his place of residence.

It started when a woman had the gas service cut off to her home. She was told she owed $2,500. She then found out that, without her knowledge, Maher, her former attorney, had added his name to her gas bill. She then found out he was using her home as his address to run for office, even though he had never lived with her and never lived at the address. Maher's past due gas bills had been added to her home's account.

The Election Board did not have the authority to kick him off the ballot, but they did invalidate his voter registration.

Ironically, Maher had forced the removal of an opposing candidate for this same election earlier this year because that candidate listed a rooming house as his address. Maher is now listing that exact same low budget rooming house as his official address.

Maher testified he had to leave a previous home when the landlord was foreclosed upon (and before the city declared it Unfit for Human Habitation), and another home when he had had disputes with the other residents. Maher used a different apartment when he ran for District Judge in a different district in 2011, and a former home when he ran for a third District Judge seat in 2005.

Excerpt:

"But Maher won't be able to vote for himself, and if he is elected, his eligibility to serve is likely to be the subject of a challenge, say Election Board solicitor John Ashcraft and election law expert Gregory Harvey.

Lynn Marks, director of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, said Maher's conduct raises serious questions about his suitability for judicial office. "I would have concerns as a resident of Allentown going before someone like this if he was elected and if somehow he was able to be sworn in," said Marks, whose organization fights for independence and accountability in the state's judicial system. "This would hurt people's confidence in the judiciary," Marks said."