Lebanon County Bureau of Elections and Voter Registration officials hosted their first “how to run for office” meeting, attempting to educate residents who may consider running for a local or county office.
More than 40 residents from both political parties showed up at the Lebanon County Municipal Building Jan. 30, many hoping to learn what they need to do to run for various municipal offices. Lebanon County Elections Director Sean Drasher said the goal was to reach out to the community to answer common questions residents have when attempting to run for office.
“We thought we could get out as much as we can legally do today, that’s why we brought the (county) solicitor in with me,” he said. “Maybe I can’t advise them on how to fill out the campaign finance report, but what I can do is say ‘Here are mistakes people commonly make’ and that’s what we tried to do.”
Lebanon County officials host their first “how to run for office” meeting to educate residents who may consider running for a local or county office. Elections Director Sean Drasher said the goal was to reach out to the community to “put a face to elections.”
Voter turnout in the 2024 general election in Pennsylvania was among the highest on record since at least 1988, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt announced Jan. 31.
The elections office is predicting only a 34% voter turnout for the municipal elections in Lebanon County. During the 2024 presidential election, the county election office reported that number to be close to 80%.
“But the parties drive out the turnout as best they can, I get out the word as best I can, but this just doesn’t have the Hollywood glitz factor of the presidential,” Drasher said. “But the stuff that is voted on in this ballot is hugely consequential to your town and the people in town.”
In the 2025 municipal primary, most Lebanon County municipalities will be voting for auditors, mayors, borough council members, township supervisors and school board members. Drasher said these are the people that will impact residents’ day to day life, like what school taxes will look like and how the potholes get fixed.
“So if you have these gripes, rather than get on Facebook and gripe about it, this is the election you can get involved,” he said. “Some of the positions are paid. Some of them aren’t. Some of them you don’t have to give up your day job.”
Many incumbent candidates have already declared their intention to run in the 2025 municipal election. Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf and County Sheriff Jeff Marley, both registered as Republicans, have announced that they will seek re-election. On Jan 21, Lebanon City Mayor Sherry Capello said she plans to run for a fifth term, while local photographer Scott Church announced Jan. 16 that he planned to challenge her for the Republican nomination.
“I would like to see some interesting races, and hopefully doing a meeting like this will drive a few more people to run,” Drasher said. “Maybe not thousands or hundreds, but if we get another dozen to run in races they might not have, that’s why we are doing it.”
Primary info
Starting Feb. 10, potential candidates will be able to stop by the Lebanon County Elections office for a packet of information that includes information about the office they plan to run for, filing fee information and information of
Potential candidates can start circulating petitions on Feb. 18, and the deadline to submit those petitions is March 11. Drasher said most offices people can run for only require 10 signatures from residents in the same party in the district that they are running.
During the Jan. 30 meeting, Drasher told potential candidates that they should not wait until the deadline to submit their paperwork. If they try to submit it on the day of the deadline, there might not be time to make any corrections to keep them from being disqualified.
The elections office also announced the creation of a new online campaign finance portal, located at lebanoncountypa.easyvotecampaignfinance.com. On the portal, candidates and office holders will be able to file their campaign finance docs by either uploading the documents directly, or by using a wizard to fill those documents in. Drasher said the hope is to streamline the process for candidates, while requiring less paperwork.
“At lot of good people that want to get involved, they look at paperwork and instantly their eyes glaze over,” Drasher said. “It really isn’t that bad. Most of the paperwork, while it looks long, it’s your filling out your contact information and what you’re running for… So it’s not as bad as it looks.”
In the 2025 municipal primary, most Lebanon County municipalities will be voting for mayors, borough councils, township supervisors and school board members. County elections director Sean Drasher said these are the people that will impact residents day to day life.
While election officials are not able to offer things like legal advice for potential candidates, Drasher said the Jan. 30 meeting was a way of “connecting a face” to potential candidates before they have a conflict or a question.
“We decided it would be nice to reach out to the community and put a face to elections, so that they can see we are human, that we are here to facilitate this election going smoothly and we want to help them however we can,” he said.
Election info
The Pennsylvania 2025 municipal primary is scheduled for May 20. The last day to register to vote is May 5. The last day to request a mail-in or absentee ballot is May 13.
Residents looking for more information can visit the Lebanon County Voter Registration Office website at http://www.lebcounty.org/depts/Voter_Registration or contact them by phone at 717-228-4428.
Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at [email protected] or on X at @DAMattToth.
This article originally appeared on Lebanon Daily News: Lebanon PA officials tell residents on how to run for municipal office
