May 27, 1976
Elect
From Pag* 1
that petitions can be legally
collected (February 27th at
12:01 a.m.), he showed up at
the office at 8:00 a.m. with
all the signatures he needed
and more. Then C. Dolores
Tucker (Pennsylvania State
Secretary) came out to shake
his hand for the news
cameras.”
“How come it never
occured to her to ask where
he got all those signatures
s,o fast?,” asked Andrea.
To press the blade of
education a little deeper,
Andrea said, “We also had
the case where a man (later
identified as Philadelphia
County representative
Freeman Hankins, Demo
crat) came in with his aide
and his petitions for
election.”
“The signatures were all
there, they were all nota
rized, but the attached
circulators’ affadavits were
left blank (which state who
collected the signatures and
that swear to the validity of
the signatures). That makes
them invalid petitions and all
illegally notarized,” she
said.
“Sue Besch,” another
intern, “complained that she
couldn't accept the petitions
in that form. Then Lou Mete,
state commissioner of elec
tions, came out to see what
was wrong.”
According to Andrea,
this is what transpired:
Lou Mete informed the
staff that Mr. Hankins was a
member in good standing of
the State Appropriations
Committee, and that his
petitions were to be ac
cepted and that the aide was
to be permitted to fill in the
blanks, immediately.
According to the Commit
tee meeting minutes and the
interns, two days later, on
February 13th, Commiss
ioner Mete and C. Dolores
Tucker went before Repre
sentative Hankins’ Appro
priations Committee to ask
for their Bureau’s yearly
stipend. They received it
with no difficulty whatever.
Andrea cites example
after redundent example of
such methods and practices,
but finally, she said, she
stopped complaining when
She and other interns were
taken out to lunch at a
Chinese restaurant.
Andrea: “We left at eleven
and didn’t come back ’til
three.”
Q.“ Your supervisors took
you?”
Andrea: “Yes.”
Q.“ And paid for it out of
their own pockets.?”
Andrea: “No. When a cand
idate wanted to challenge
the petitions of other
candidates, he paid one
dollar for every copy made.
We were taken out to lunch
on that money.”
Q.“ Doesn’t that money be
long to the state?"
Andrea: “Yeah. But I guess I
finally got to benefit from
some little piece of graft.”
Andrea’s account of
these events was not the
first one the C.C. Reader had
heard, but it was a
representative one.
The original knowledge
we obtained on the activities
at the Bureau of Elections
was brought to us voluntarily
by interns Susan Besch and
on Bureau Investigated
Before going to
State Records office, Grant
was asked some further
questions:
Q: “Were you present when
Freeman Hankins tried to file
his petitions for election?
Grant: “No. I wasn’t there,
but I heard about it.”
Q: “Were you here when Irv
Jaffe tried to file his
petitions for election?”
Grant: “Have you seen this!
This is the Pennsylvania
State Elections Code. Sec
tion 2936 states that
petitions may be ammended
at the time they are
presented. TTiis avoids tying
up the courts with petition
challenges.”
Inquiries on the part of
the Reader as to why.thise
the Reader as to why those
petitions must be am
mended inside the Com
missioners closed office,
came to no avail.
Christine Cox who heard we
were doing a feature on
internships forourMarch 4th
As it happened, staff
writer Ray Martin inters
viewed Urban Term student
George Crowell on his
internship at the Bureau of
Elections for that article, and
Crowell said, at that time, he
was satisfied with the
program there.
When Cox and Besch
heard of Crowell’s remark,
they came to the Reader
office to voice contrary
opinions of the quality of the
internships at the Elections
Bureau and to fill us in on
what actually happens in the
day-to-day operations there.
Their recounting of inci
dents adhered closely to
ones we heard later from
other students, like
Yelverton. However, they
were able to add signifigant
details relating to the
Freeman Hankins incident,
which were corroborated by
other interns and officials at
the Bureau itself.
According to the
Cox/Besch account, on the
morning that Commissioner
Mete and Secretary Tucker
went before the Appropria
tions Committee to ask for
the Bureau stipend, Irv Jaffe
(Republican), a candidate for
state auditor general, came
in to file his election
petitions.
When Jaffe presented the
petitions, Lou Mete rejected
them for having one blank
space in the circulators’
affadavit.
Mete’s action caused the
interns to voice their
complaints on the spot and
to ask: If Hankins petitions
had been accepted two days
earlier with considerably
more wrong with them, why
was Jaffe’s being rejected? □
The interns’ questions
caused Robert Grant, Mete’s
assistant who was not
present during the Haskins
filing, to take his superior
aside and ask exactly what
he thought he was doing.
After a brief consultation
between the two, Grant,
Jaffe and Mete retired to
Mete’s office.
When the three emerged,
Jaffe’s petitions were ac
cepted. Debbie Hoffman,
another intern at the Bureau
of Elections, verified this
incident and added another
During the period when
petitions may be obtained
for the presidential primary,
Shapp was permitted to send
a substitute representative
to pick up his delegate
petitions. Indiana Senator
Birch Bahy, a Democratic
primary candidate in the
same race with Shapp, was
not permitted a similar
privilege. Instead, Bahy had
to follow the law, which
requires that petitions be
picked up in person by the
individual delegated to that
responsibility—no substitu
tions.
The implication here is
that the Pennsylvania State
Bureau of Elections showed
favoritism to Shapp. How
ever, we were unable to
verify the truth if this
After observing the activ
ity at the Bureau for six
weeks and with two weeks of
their internship remaining,
several Capitol Campus
C.C. Reader
students withdrew from the
program with the Internship
Program Advisor Dr. Robert
Bresleris consent.
When asked for verifica
tion of the students com
plaints, Bresler said he was
examining their internship
reports which give their
assessment of the situation
at the Bureau.
On May sth, this Reader
staff writer met with Grant at
his office in Harrisburg to
get his response to our file
of statements, interviews,
rumors and horror stories.
Grant was asked for
copies of the petitions of
Representative Freeman
Hankins and Candidate Larry
Hochendoner.
Grant replied that all the
petitions had been moved
out of the office just the day
before and relocated in the
State Records Office.
Try It One More Time?
It has become apparent
that many students have
misinterpreted the revised
course repeat rule which
became effective Winter
term 1976.
A course in which a grade
of A, B, C, D, or F was
received may be repeated
provided the student re
ceives written permission
from his advisor and
program chairman.
All grades received for the
course will be averaged into
the student’s cumulative
grade point average. How
ever, a student may not
receive duplicate credit for
passing the course more
than once.
Under Rule M3b, a student
may petition to repeat a
course in which an “F” grade
was received,
the
controls of Pegasus’
DC-8.
Dr. James Km
here.
If he/she then receives a
grade of “C” pr better, only
this last grade shall be used
to compute his/her cumul
ative grade point average.
All grades earned, how
ever, remain on his/her
permanent record. A grade
of “D” or “F” in the repeated
course is averaged in the
usual way.
For a student to exercise
this option, the following
conditions must be met:
-The student must have
failed the course prior to the
Winter term 1976. Courses
taken on a pass/fail basis or
courses in which a “D” or
better grade was received are
not eligible for repeat under
this rule.
--The student must register
for the course according to
procedures outlined in the
High: Aviation Day
By John Leierzapf
Staff Writer
The morning was brisk,
the sky blue with puffs of
clouds scattered here and
there.
The wind was a bit gusty
at times but the conditions
combined to make it a great
day for flying at Harrisburg
International Airport.
Those people who took
advantage of the plane rides
were rewarded with a
panoramic view of the state
capitol, Middletown and
Capitol Campus.
The control tower was
open for inspection to
anyone with enough interest
The final product of the
search was this: After
obtaining photostatic copies
of the petitions in question,
Larry Hochendoner came up
fairly clean. The mysterious
signatures acquired betwenn
signatures acquired between
12:01 a.m. and 8:00 a.m.
were the result of a
vigourous door-to-door
campaign conducted at 1: 00
a.m. This was determined
after talking to petition
signers.
However, on examination
of Freeman Hankins’ peti
tions revealed they were all
notarized by someone with
the last name Hankins, and
all the blanks on the
circulators’ affadavits were
filled in, with what appeared
to be the/ same typewriter.
All of them that is, except
one. It had an odd blank
spot.
Master Schedule for the term
in which the student expects
to repeat the course.
-The student must file a
Course Repeat Notice form
with the Records Office on
or before the 21st calendar
day of the term in which
he/she will repeat the
course. If the Course Repeat
Notice is not filed, all grades
received for the course will
not be used to compute the
student’s cumulative grade
point average.
A guide to Rule M3b is
printed in the 1975-76
Policies and Rules for
Students.
Courses failed after the
Fall term 1975 are not
eligible for repeat under this
rule. However, they may be
repeated under the proc
edures outlined above.
and stamina to make the
long steep climb to the top.
Two aircraft Controllers were
on duty and explained the
tower's operation and pro
cedures.
Pegasus International
had their DC-8 on display
and most people took the
opportunity to sit at the
controls on the flight deck
and dream.
Aviation day was only a
modest success compared
to last year because few
planes were on display.
However, Larry Schrader,
club president, said that
everyone who took part
enjoyed themselves.
'Q (i iv* medical screening held
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