ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Two women have challenged state Rep. Ana Tiburcio's ballot petition, alleging the newly elected lawmaker's paperwork to put her on the Democratic primary ballot is riddled with errors.
Jessica Ortiz and Paulette Hunter filed an objection to the petition Tiburcio's campaign submitted last week in her bid for a full term representing Pennsylvania's 22nd House District.
While the petition featured 578 signatures, the two allege that 317 of them are not valid. A minimum of 300 are needed to make the ballot.
If a court agrees, that would leave Tiburcio short of the 300 signatures needed to appear in the May 19 primary.
"As a resident of House District 22 for more than 27 years, I simply want fairness, transparency and integrity in our elections. Our community deserves confidence that the process is being conducted honestly and according to the law."Petition challenger Jessica Ortiz said in a prepared statement
"As a resident of House District 22 for more than 27 years, I simply want fairness, transparency and integrity in our elections," Ortiz said in a prepared statement Tuesday.
"Our community deserves confidence that the process is being conducted honestly and according to the law."
Tuesday was the deadline to challenge nominating petitions of candidates seeking elected offices.
The 22nd District represents parts of Allentown and Salisbury Township.
Without the objection, the Democratic primary would pit Allentown City Councilwoman Ce-Ce Gerlach against Tiburcio in a showdown that likely will determine the election.
Registered Democrats in the district outnumber Republicans by a 2.5-to-1 ratio, giving the primary winner a significant advantage in the fall.
'She should respect the voter'
The objection alleges that several pages of signatures appear to be forged and that many people who signed are not registered Democrats in the district.
In addition, Hunter and Ortiz call on a judge to strike dozens of signatures because Tiburcio, state Rep. Mike Schlossberg and Allentown School Board Director Andrene Brown-Nowell failed to date petitions that they circulated.
The full objection can be read here.
"Councilwoman Gerlach is playing the same tired games that political insiders play. I'm not interested in that."State Rep. Ana Tiburcio
Tiburcio dismissed the objection as a distraction as she works to serve the Allentown community.
"Councilwoman Gerlach is playing the same tired games that political insiders play," Tiburcio said. "I'm not interested in that. Simply state, she should respect the voter."
The 22nd District has proven to be a sore point within Lehigh County Democratic circles.
Julian Guridy, the son of former Allentown City Councilman Julio Guridy, was selected over Gerlach by local party officials to run in a special election.
However, Guridy was forced to drop out at the last minute because of residency issues. State officials scrambled to choose Tiburcio, a former school board director, as the party's standard-bearer ahead of a filing deadline in early January.
Tiburcio had not sought the position until approached by state officials. After a poor performance at the special election's debate, members of the Democratic Party vented on social media that the party passed over Gerlach.
Sultana petition challenged
Former Easton City Councilwoman Taiba Sultana also faces an objection to her petition for Pennsylvania's 18th state Senate District, where she's running against longtime incumbent Lisa Boscola.
Four women — Patricia Hitzel, Patti Bruno, Celeste Dee and Pamela Panto — filed an objection alleging that 417 of the 901 signatures she filed are invalid. Their filing alleges that dozens of the signatures were forged and that dozens more weren't legible, making it impossible to verify their credibility.
The women also objected to Sultana's statement of financial interest, which requires candidates to identify their occupation and any outstanding loans. Sultana listed her occupation as self-employed, which the women argued isn't specific enough to meet state guidelines.
Finally, the challenge argues that one of the individuals who circulated petitions on Sultana's behalf provided a bad address for herself. If upheld in a court of law, that would invalidate 12 pages of signatures that she collected for the Sultana campaign.
At least three of the four women who filed the objection have strong ties to Democratic Party politics. Dee has run successful statewide campaigns for judicial candidates, though she's lost her own bids for Bethlehem City Council. Bruno ran former Northampton County District Attorney's Terry Houck campaign but was booted off the ballot when over flawed paperwork when she tried to run for Northampton County Council last year.
Pamela Panto is the wife of Easton Mayor Sal Panto, Jr. He and Sultana routinely clashed during her single term on Easton City Council.
In a prepared statement, Sultana expressed confidence that her campaign would not be derailed. She accused the Boscola campaign of trying to undermine the Democratic process.
"Instead of trying to remove opponents through legal maneuvering, we should be debating the real issues facing Pennsylvania families; the rising cost of living, protecting workers, and standing up to Donald Trump’s attacks on our state and immigrant communities," she said. "Elections should be decided by voters at the ballot box, not in a courtroom."
If the objection is to succeed on the signatures front, nearly every contested name will need to be thrown out by a judge. A state senate candidate needs 500 valid signatures to appear on the primary ballot.
Sultana faced objections in past campaigns.
In 2024, she ran for state representative against Democratic incumbent Robert Freeman but drew criticism when she filed a petition featuring a forged signature of Boscola's. Boscola does not live in the Freeman's district and endorsed him in the race.
Boscola called for a criminal investigation into the matter, saying that no one in good faith would believe that it was her signature.
No charges materialized, and Sultana said on the campaign trail that Freeman and Boscola were part of a gerontocracy — or rule by the elderly — that needed to be replaced. Freeman went on to win the primary.
The 18th Senate District represents the Bethlehem, Easton and Slate Belt areas of Northampton County.
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story mistakenly identified Ortiz and Hunter as political allies of Gerlach.
