Babette Josephs booted from ballot

There will be no rematch this May for former state Rep. Babette Josephs and the man who defeated her in 2012 after 14 terms, state Rep. Brian Sims in Center City's 182nd District.

Josephs was removed from the May 20 Democratic primary ballot this morning after a state Commonwealth Court judge found that she did not have the required 300 signatures from registered voters on her nomination petitions.

Josephs submitted 599 signatures but her attorney and the attorney for those challenging her petitions agreed before the hearing that only 467 of them were potentially viable.  Another 171 signatures were thrown out after voter registration records showed that the man who circulated those pages of the petitions had listed an inaccurate address for himself.

The man, who Josephs later said was hired to collect her signatures, listed a former address at a social agency for the homeless at 12th and Bainbridge streets in Center City. He moved his voter registration last year from there to a rowhouse at 54th and Lansdowne Avenue in West Philly.

"I'm disappointed of course," Josephs said after the hearing, getting one more dig in on Sims. "I think it was important for the state representative there now to understand that this is not about him. It's not about me. It's about the people of the 182nd District and the people of Pennsylvania"