In Pennsylvania, school board candidates can file to be on the Primary ballot for either or both political parties, so you cannot tell by your ballot what the candidate’s actual party affiliation is.

You also cannot tell from your ballot whether or not the candidate is also filed on the other party’s ballot.

One way to know is to look up the sample ballots in your precinct for both parties on the county Board of Elections web page.

If you don’t know the candidate’s party affiliation, you can contact your local political party, the party representative in your precinct, or call the Board of Elections.

The top vote-getters in the Primary for the number of seats available in each party advance to the General Election. On the General Election ballot, you will see either D or R or D/R next to the candidate’s name, telling you which Primaries he or she won.

If the candidates cross-file, they could potentially win nominations in both Party Primaries for the General Election. In that case you will see “D/R” next to their names.

Since the Pennsylvania Governor is a Democrat, you will see the Democratic candidates listed first.

So potentially, you can have Democrats nominated and elected by Republicans and Republicans nominated and elected by Democrats.

         Don’t shoot the messenger! We didn’t write the rules!