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<p>Luzerne County Court Judges Michael T. Vough and Joseph Sklarosky Jr. said they will issue a ruling soon on whether three candidates will appear on the November general election ballot.</p><p>The judges jointly presided over a hearing on the three election-related cases last week.</p><p>County council write-in nominee Eugene Kelleher is contesting the county election board&#8217;s decision to keep him off the ballot due to his late filing of required paperwork.</p><p>The other two challenges stem from Hazleton resident Kim Guerriero&#8217;s filing asking the court to reject independent Hazleton mayoral contenders John Medashefski and Scott Cahalane.</p><p>Kelleher said he did not receive the county election bureau&#8217;s original June 2 mailing informing him he had won the Republican nomination and providing him with paperwork that must be filed, including a financial interest statement due within 30 days of official certification.</p><p>A Dallas Township resident who served on the initial county council for two years, Kelleher said he immediately filed the paperwork when he received a second packet after the deadline.</p><p>Kelleher&#8217;s attorney, Michael O&#8217;Donnell, said the late filing is not a &#8220;fatal defect&#8221; warranting removal from the ballot and said a removal would go against the will of the 487 write-in voters who chose Kelleher as a nominee. Kelleher promptly filed his financial statement after receiving notice in July, allowing voters more than three months to vet the information in his report before they vote in November, he said.</p><p>County assistant solicitor Michael Butera, who handles election matters, argued that keeping Kelleher off the ballot is the legally required action for write-in candidates who miss the deadline. Kelleher&#8217;s argument that he did not receive the initial letter is irrelevant because the burden is on candidates to comply with required filings, he said. The county has no legal mandate to alert candidates to necessary filings but does so as a courtesy, he said.</p><p>Guerriero argued in part that Medashefski is not eligible to run as an independent because he had filed nomination papers to run as a Democrat in the same Hazleton mayoral race in the primary. Medashefski did not end up running as a Democrat in the primary because some signatures on his petition were successfully challenged.</p><p>Medashefski said he is not barred from running under a &#8220;poor loser law&#8221; because he never appeared on the primary ballot.</p><p>Guerriero challenged Cahalane&#8217;s nomination petition because he changed his affiliation on the petition from independent to non-partisan the day he filed the petition with the county election office. Such changes must be made before signatures are obtained, she argued.</p><p>Cahalane said the county election bureau informed him he could make the change when he filed because he was registered to vote as non-partisan. If the election bureau had informed him such a change was not allowed, he would have exercised his legal right to circulate and refile a new petition within six days, he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Kelleher </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_EugeneKelleher1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Kelleher </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Luzerne County judges to decide fate of three prospective election candidates