College sophomore Nathaniel Rome has petitioned to remove Ohio Gov. John Kasich from the ballot in Pennsylvania | Courtesy of Gage Skidmore
Just about everyone has their opinions on the current presidential candidates. Some have stronger opinions than others. Few actually take legal action against a candidate.
Enter College sophomore Nathaniel Rome. On Feb. 23, Rome — who also serves as chairman of Pennsylvania Students for Rubio — petitioned in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania to have Ohio Gov. John Kasich removed from Pennsylvania’s primary election ballot. He claimed that Kasich did not receive the necessary 2,000 signatures on his nomination petition.
According to a Philly Voice article, Rome believes that “as many as 802 of the 2,184 signatures on the Kasich petition are invalid or ineligible, for multiple reasons,” including signatures that do not match those on voter registration cards and signatures from people not registered to vote.
Rome and his attorney John G. Bravacos were unavailable for comment on Monday, though Bravacos pointed out that challenging the legitimacy of ballot signatures is hardly a novelty. Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, “there are at least 30 to 40 challenges” for a variety of electoral races, Philly Voice reported.
Rome himself is an elected officer at Penn, serving as academic affairs director of the Undergraduate Assembly. As chairman of Pennsylvania Students for Rubio, he oversees “12 campus chapters and 200 volunteers supporting Sen. [Marco] Rubio,” according to his LinkedIn account.
On the same day Rome filed his petition, Kasich finished dead last in the Nevada caucuses, earning barely 4 percent of the vote. With nearly 24 percent of the vote, Marco Rubio finished second behind 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump. Rubio has been widely perceived in recent weeks as the mainstream alternative to frontrunner Trump. Kasich, who trailed badly in Nevada and South Carolina after a second-place finish in New Hampshire, has received pressure to drop out to shore up support for Rubio.
Kasich has promised to stay in until at least the Ohio primary on March 15.
“If I don’t win Ohio, then, you know, ballgame over,” he said during a Sunday appearance on “Meet the Press” on NBC. The Pennsylvania primary is over a month later on April 26.
Rome’s next hearing in Commonwealth Court is on March 9 at the Pennsylvania Judicial Center in Harrisburg, Pa.
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