The following Commonwealth Court Memorandum Opinion issued by Senior Judge Rochelle S. Freidman outlines the reasons for removing Nevin Mindlin from the ballot as a Mayoral candidate.

A copy of the opinion can be found here.

This recent ruling is one of many upsets that Mindlin has faced along his path to become Mayor.

On August 8th, 2013 Harrisburg resident Donald Lee Coles Sr. petitioned the court to challenge Nevin Mindlin's nomination papers. The challenge filed by Coles sought to strike Mindlin from the ballot on the basis that he did not complete Section C of his nomination papers.

Section C is where prospective candidates provide the names of three to five people that are authorized to fill a candidate's vacancy if they are no longer able to participate in their election. This section is otherwise known as specifying a Committee to Fill Vancancies.

Nevin's hearing was held on August 12th, 2013 before Judge Bearnard L. Coates. Mindlin argued that he relied on information provided by the Dauphin County Bureau of Elections in determining that he was not required to specify a Committee to Fill Vacancies.

After the hearing we spoke with Nevin where he was optimistic about the outcome of his case and the arguments he made before the court. "I think it's encouraging that the judge has taken it under advisement, I think that he heard what he needed to hear today, I think we presented a very strong case," said Mindlin.

When asked about his failure to specify a Committee to Fill Vancancies Mindlin stated, "Honestly if I had known I needed to do that, it would have been a simple thing for us to have done." He continued, "It would be a very simple thing for me to get 100 good signatures in Harrisburg with three names on it that most people probably wouldn't even know who they were."

On August 15, 2013 Judge Coates issued a Memorandum Opinion ordering Mindlin's Nomination Petition and Papers to be set aside and for his name to be stricken from the ballot for the November 5, 2013 election.

Shortly thereafter, Mindlin released the following statement. Staying true to his word, it didn't take long before Mindlin filed an appeal in Commonwealth Court seeking to overturn Judge Coates' order striking his name from the ballot.

Photo by Natalie Cake