Senator-elect Lindsey Williams submits papers in residency dispute with GOP

This story has been updated.

(Harrisburg) — The ball is in the court of the Pennsylvania Senate’s Republican majority after lawyers for a newly elected Democrat submitted documents they say should address any concerns that she doesn’t meet residency requirements to serve in the chamber.

Republicans are threatening to bar Democrat Lindsey Williams from taking her seat in the chamber, a move that could force a special election in the spring and give Republicans another shot at keeping the Pittsburgh-area seat that Williams won narrowly in the Nov. 6 election.

The showdown is raising accusations by Williams’ allies that Republicans are trying to steal the election, while Republicans insist they are trying to do the right thing under the state constitution.

Williams’ lawyers submitted the package late Monday to Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson.

In it, they said they have seen no reason why Williams does not meet the constitutional requirement that senators be “citizens and inhabitants” of Pennsylvania for four years before they are elected.

Williams, 35, has maintained that she accepted a job offer with the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers in the days before Nov. 6, 2014, and had begun moving her things from Maryland, where she lived with her sister and brother-in-law.

On Nov. 6, 2014, she had moved in with friends in the Pittsburgh area while she looked for an apartment and finished her final assignments at her previous job with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in Washington, D.C., the paperwork said. She moved other household items later, it said.

Williams, a northeast Pennsylvania native, has lived most of her life in the state, including attending college and law school in Pennsylvania.

Republicans have pointed to the post-Nov. 6, 2014, dates on her Pennsylvania driver’s license, apartment lease agreement and voter registration as reasons why she does not meet the four-year requirement. But Williams’ lawyers cited case law that suggests that such matters are not expected to be completed the day someone moves from one state to another.

In a statement, Scarnati’s office said Williams’ information “answers some questions but certainly raises new issues” and said the question remains whether she meets the constitutional requirement.

Scarnati has retained an outside lawyer to review Williams’ legal arguments and, after that, “we will make known our next step in a few days,” his office said.

The fight over Williams is sending Senate lawyers to search for precedent since it has been decades since the Senate refused to seat a member. Counting Williams, Republicans hold a 29-21 majority in the chamber after a tough election cycle in which they lost five seats and their super majority.

The seat Williams won has been held by Republicans since 1990. New senators are to be sworn in Jan. 1, and a vote against seating Williams could turn the normally a celebratory ceremony attended by family members of senators into a bare-knuckled partisan fight.

Williams defeated Stephanie Walsh in the Democratic primary, while Jeremy Shaffer thumped the two-term incumbent, Randy Vulakovich, in the GOP’s primary.

Republicans did challenge her residency in court in October, but a judge threw it out on a technicality without settling whether Williams met the requirement. Williams went on to defeat Shaffer by 793 votes, according to certified returns posted online by the Department of State.

If the seat goes to a special election, Republicans predict that the Democrats’ campaign message will accuse them of stealing the election from voters.