Pennsylvania Advisory Opinions March 16, 1908: AGO 20

Advisory Opinion Text

COUNTY AND CITY SUPERINTENDENTS OF SCHOOLS.

Candidates for election as County and City Superintendents of Schools do not come within the terms of the Act of 5th March, 1906 (P. L. 78.)

Office of the Attorney General, Hon. Nathan C. Schaeffer, Superintendent Public Instruction, Harrisburg, Penna.

Sir: I am in receipt of your letter of the 10th inst. In it you state that the Triennial Conventions of School Directors to elect county and City Superintendents for the next three years throughout the Commonwealth will meet on the first Tuesday of May next, and you ask to be advised whether the candidates for these offices come within the terms and are subject to the provisions of the act approved the 5th day of March, A. D. 1906, (P. L. 78), entitled:

"An Act to regulate nomination and election expenses, and to require accounts of nomination and election expenses to be filed, and providing penalties for the violation of this act."

The first section of the act in question defines the terms used therein, and the second paragraph of that section reads as follows:

"The term 'candidate for election,' as used in this act, shall include all persons whose names are printed as candidates on the official ballots, or on any official sticker, used at any election; and also all persons voted for, for any public office, who shall receive at least ten per cent, of the highest vote received by the successful candidate for such office, but whose names were not printed on the official ballots., * * * * The term 'public office,' as used in this act, shall include every public office to which persons can be elected by vote of the people, under the laws of this Commonwealth."

Inasmuch as County and City Superintendents of Schools are not voted for at any general election, and their names are not printed as candidates on the official ballots, and the office which they hold is not one "to which persons can be elected by vote of the people," they do not come within the terms of the aforesaid act, nor are they in any way subject to its provisions.

Very respectfully,

FREDERIC W. FLEITZ, Deputy Attorney General.