Last night Doug broke the news that Ms. Paolino got busted by Montgomery County folks (and a judge named Richard J. Hodgson, apparently)for the oldest slezoid election trick in the books and isn't astounding? What is it? Phony election ballots? Apparently so.

This morning there is an Inquirer story stating that this morning in Delaware County Courthouse there is an emergency hearing for the same thing at 11:30 a.m. Except in Delco, apparently the lilly was gilded further?

We know HaverfordBlog is watching closely since supposedly the Delco version of these fake ballots have apparently surfaced there in Havertown - we don't know about Radnor, does anyone out there? PA Watercooler shows a copy of the confiscated fake ballot....

Here is the scathing Inquirer article:

Posted on Sat, Apr. 19, 2008
Judge blocks a candidate's 'official' GOP sample ballot
By Derrick Nunnally
Inquirer Staff Writer

An acrimonious Republican Senate primary turned litigious yesterday with a fight over endorsement claims on mass-mailed sample ballots.

Pea-green "Official Republican Ballot" forms mailed by Pennsylvania Senate candidate Lisa Paolino list two choices in the 17th District Senate primary: Paolino and "not endorsed."

The ballots, which arrived in Montgomery County mailboxes yesterday, bore a substantial resemblance to the Montgomery County Republican Committee's pea-green "Official Republican Ballot" - which lists Lance Rogers as the endorsed candidate and Paolino not at all.

In the Norristown courthouse yesterday afternoon, Rogers and attorney Robert Kerns - who is unopposed in a May 8 election to lead the county Republican committee - persuaded Common Pleas Court Judge Richard J. Hodgson to block Paolino's campaign from mailing the sample ballots.

He ordered that all unsent ballots be seized and ruled that no more be made. The judge said the ballots looked so much like the Montgomery County Republican endorsement ballot that confusion was inevitable.

"Any voter reading this would think that she's the endorsed Republican in Montgomery County," Hodgson said.

....Kerns said he would ask for the constables to be given confiscation orders during an injunction hearing Monday.

"The fraud that this perpetuates could be astoundingly difficult for Lance Rogers to overcome," Kerns said.

Paolino did not attend the hearing and could not be reached for comment.

Mary R. Auchincloss, her attorney in yesterday's hearing, asked Hodgson to decline to issue a restraining order in the last days of the heated primary.

"The effect upon the campaign would be totally chilling," Auchincloss said.

....A similar temporary-injunction hearing is scheduled for this morning in Delaware County.

Doesn't this seem like another big black eye for Radnor Township? Wonder what the fall out in Radnor will be?

Remember these articles:

You decide: Radnor ethics probe or political smear job?
By:Ryan Richards 02/07/2003

Did a Radnor commissioner swipe a stack of campaign literature off a table during the spring primary? Or was he the target of a smear campaign?

That was the question at the center of a hearing convened by the Radnor Township Ethics Board Jan. 28.

Radnor: Cannan violated ethics
By:Douglas P. Scott 04/24/2003

The Radnor Township Ethics Board has found Commissioner David Cannan culpable on six different occasions of acting "in a manner unbecoming of an elected public official" during the primary election on May 21, 2002.

Will Radnor Township convene their ethics board similarly this time, or let this go?

This blog is reporting news already out in the public display - in the media and in public court documents like this one found here. The First Amendment allows this, and that is the long and short of it.