Southmoreland school official challenges primary results, claims county ballot error

Editor’s note: This story was amended on June 7, 2021, to correct the name of Southmoreland school board candidate Candice Raymond.

A Southmoreland School Board member on Friday challenged the results of last month’s primary, claiming the Westmoreland County Election Bureau failed to include an open two-year seat on the ballot.

In a handwritten lawsuit, Catherine Fike asked a judge to set aside results from the Democratic and Republican primaries in which five candidates were nominated to run for four four-year seats this fall.

Fike was reelected to a four-year board seat in 2019. Her term expires at the end of 2023.

Brian Shipley finished as the top vote-getter in both party primaries. According to Fike’s lawsuit, Shipley in March filed nomination petitions with the county election bureau declaring his candidacy for a two-year seat.

“No person has the right to win an election for a seat/position for which no valid petition has been submitted by that individual,” Fike wrote in the lawsuit.

Four full-term seats on the nine-member Southmoreland School Board were listed on the May primary ballots. Southmoreland school board solicitor David Petonic said the remaining two years of another seat that was vacated and temporarily filled by Candice Raymond last year should have appeared on the ballot this spring.

Petonic said the school district sent a letter this year to the county election bureau outlining which board seats should appear on spring ballots.

Raymond ran for a four-year seat, finishing third in the Democratic primary and sixth in the Republican primary. The county elections board is scheduled to take a final certification vote June 7.

Fike’s challenge was assigned to Judge Harry Smail Jr., who, as of late Friday, had not scheduled a time to hear the complaint.

Westmoreland election officials declined to comment on the challenge.

“The board cannot comment until after it has had the opportunity to review and evaluate,” Melissa Guiddy, the county’s solicitor, wrote in an email.

Shipley on Friday conceded he originally filed documents to run for a two-year term but was told by county election officials he had to run for a four-year seat.

“They said there wasn’t a two-year seat available. That’s what I was told,” Shipley said.

In her challenge, Fike asked the judge to set aside the primary results or that Shipley’s vote totals be removed from the tallies.

Fike, when reached Friday, said she supported Shipley’s candidacy and signed his nominating petitions.

The retired psychologist gained notoriety this year when she appeared at a school board meeting in April wearing a bag over her head to protest mask wearing and coronavirus restrictions.

The school district includes two voting precincts in Fayette County. According to unofficial results, just four seats for four-year terms were included on ballots in Fayette County. Shipley was listed among candidates seeking a four-year term.