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No Candidates on Ballot for Key Posts in Montoursville

MONTOURSVILLE — With less than 24 hours until the polls open, some municipalities are missing something on the ballot: candidates. In Montoursville, no on...

MONTOURSVILLE -- With less than 24 hours until the polls open, some municipalities are missing something on the ballot: candidates.

In Montoursville, no one is running for several key positions, including mayor.

In addition to mayor, there are three borough council seats up for grabs with nobody running. Even though there are some people running write-in campaigns, some voters Newswatch 16 spoke with say it's disheartening that nobody will be on the ballot.

"In a larger borough such as Montoursville, you would normally expect some candidates to file petitions. This was atypical," said Lycoming County director of elections Forrest Lehman.

Lehman says it's not just Montoursville. There are quite a few places with blank spaces on the ballots. Lehman says this is a growing trend.

"Some of those offices will be filled by write-in candidates, but many of those offices we will see empty."

Lehman says if an office is vacant after the November election, it's up to the school district or municipality to fill the spot. Some people are running write-in campaigns for mayor and borough council in Montoursville but not everyone knows about it.

"It's more work for us and it leaves the municipality or school district in suspense longer, as to who are they going to be working with going forward," Lehman said.

The people we spoke with say it's disheartening that people are not on the ballot.

"It shows a lack of interest. The big deal around here is the school board. It just seems that nobody is interested in running for borough (council)," said Montoursville resident Kevin McNamara.

"You have a lot of the older and a lot of the younger, but nothing really in the middle where they're willing to step out there and put their name out there," said Nicole McKibben.

John Doran, the current mayor of Montoursville, has been in office for almost 40 years. He plans to retire at the end of this year.

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