Democrats Jeffrey Lake and Marty Flynn will remain on the May 19 primary ballot

Democrats Jeffrey Lake and Marty Flynn will both appear on the May 19 primary ballot in the state’s 22nd Senatorial District race because nomination petition challenges against both men have been resolved.

Scranton resident Lawrence Wynne discontinued his challenge of Lake’s petition, according to Wynne’s attorney and Lake.

Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Court has dismissed two separate challenges to incumbent Flynn’s petition that had been filed by Lake and La Plume resident Lawrence S. Sparano, the court docket shows.

Lake

Wynne’s challenge against Lake’s petition raised complaints about the voter signature format and a petition circulator’s statement. A hearing was scheduled for Monday.

Philadelphia Attorney Kevin Greenberg, who represents Wynne, said his client decided to discontinue the case after further review of all signatures since the challenge was filed. Wynne filed the challenge in good faith and was confident some signatures would be deemed ineligible by the court, but Wynne concluded there was still a high probability Lake would end up meeting the 500-signature requirement, Greenberg said.

Lake, of Scranton, put out a release announcing he has officially secured a place on the ballot after the objector “had to admit Lake had at least 500 valid signatures.”

“With ballot access secured, this campaign is moving forward stronger than ever,” Lake said in the release. “Now it’s time to let the voters decide.”

Flynn

Lake’s challenge of Flynn’s nomination petition argued that Flynn left the voting precinct line blank on his candidate’s affidavit, “rendering the affidavit incomplete and materially defective.”

A similar argument was made in the challenge of another candidate’s petition last week, and the court concluded that the defect “was not material.”

However, the court’s dismissal of the filing against Flynn was not based on the blank precinct line.

Instead, the court order said the dismissal stemmed from Flynn’s objection that Lake’s challenge was not served on the Secretary of the Commonwealth by March 17 as required, it said.

Sparano’s challenge of Flynn’s nomination petition was also dismissed due to the missed service deadline, the dismissal order said.

Sparano had raised issues with voter signatures and petition circulators in Flynn’s petition.

Due to the dismissals, Thursday’s court hearings on both filings against Flynn were cancelled.

Even if Sparano’s challenge had prevailed, Flynn said Monday he would have had more than enough signatures to remain on the ballot.

Flynn, of Dunmore, said he obtained more than 1,000 signatures that were not contested, or double the requirement. The choice should be up to voters, he said.

“Voters can take a look at both candidates and decide who would do a better job,” Flynn said.