Article VIII.
Suffrage and Elections

Section 16. Courts of common pleas may appoint overseers of elections; overseers may decide questions of difference

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Trial of contested elections

Courts of common pleas may appoint overseers of elections; overseers may decide questions of difference

The courts of Common Pleas of the several counties of the Commonwealth shall have power, within their respective jurisdictions, to appoint overseers of election to supervise the proceedings of election officers and to make report to the court as may be required; such appointments to be made for any district in a city or county upon petition of five citizens, lawful voters of such election district, setting forth that such appointment is a reasonable precaution to secure the purity and fairness of elections; overseers shall be two in number for an election district, shall be residents therein, and shall be persons qualified to serve upon election boards, and in each case members of different political parties; whenever the members of an election shall differ in opinion the overseers, if they shall be agreed thereon, shall decide the question of difference; in appointing overseers of election all the law judges of the proper court, able to act at the time, shall concur in the appointment made.