Petitioners aiming to halt the certification of last week's primary election got a simple instruction from a judge on Thursday: go find more people to file petitions.

Jennifer Gilliland Vanasdale's attorney, Sean Logue, filed an emergency petition Wednesday calling for the court to stay the election certification until the Bureau of Elections produces documentation of complaints from voters about ballot and polling place problems. The filing included an affidavit from Mary Lou Kephart, a registered Democrat who said she was given a Republican ballot on voting day at the South Butler Fire Hall.

On Thursday, visiting Senior Judge Kenneth Valasek dismissed the petition without prejudice, meaning it can be refiled. He explained that by his reading of the law, Logue and Vanasdale needed 10 voters to come forward with petitions if he was going to have any authority to interfere in the election certification.

That's effectively a kick down the curb, but not a big one. The election bureau already submitted its tallies to the state for certification. Wednesday was the first of five business days to file petitions challenging results or calling for a recount.

“There is going to come a time where it is simply too late,” Valasek told Logue.

After the hearing, Logue said he's going to come back with more voters.

“The judge was fair,” Logue said. “The judge told me we need to come up with nine more people. When we're done here, I'm going to go back to the office. I'm going to try and round up those nine other people, and then hopefully amend my petition.”

The latest petition was the fourth document filed by Logue regarding the election in the past week. If this next amended petition doesn't satisfy Vanasdale and her team, Logue indicated they'll have another big step to take.

If this petitioning doesn't work, Logue said, “The final route is a full recount. My client believes there were some shenanigans. You had people who are not allowed to comment on public elections commenting on Facebook about elections. You had law enforcement officers following her around. I can tell you personally that when I was here the other day, two sheriff's deputies followed us around.”

He said he has heard from “tons and tons” of people saying they had issues while voting.

If this petition succeeds, Logue and Vanasdale hope they'll be able to use the court's authority to gain access to written records of complaints about voting that they allege the election bureau possesses.

Kathleen Goldman, a special solicitor representing the election bureau for the judicial race, said Logue's request lacked needed specificity.

“I'm not exactly sure what they're looking for,” Goldman told the judge.

Matt McCune, an attorney attending on behalf of William “Wink” Robinson, sharply criticized Vanasdale's efforts after the hearing. Robinson, according to uncertified results, beat Vanasdale by six votes on the Democratic ballot. Coupled with his Republican win, current results would list him as unopposed on the November ballot.

“This is just somebody who can't accept a loss,” McCune said. “What started out as just misguided zeal has turned into a cycle of futility and a perversion of law. Voters spoke. The election is over. It should be. This is somebody who just can't handle that. For the community and the voters and the county employees and all the attorneys who are here, she should just end this. The voters spoke.”

McCune said Kephart's affidavit was too vague to mean much.

“They're using one potential example to say that basically the whole election shouldn't count, or that one vote should count as seven. It's ridiculous.”

Logue and Vanasdale hope they won't have just one or seven voters by Tuesday, but rather 10.

If they don't succeed at that, they'll still need voters to come forward. A spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State offered the following clarity on how a recount effort would need to proceed: Three voters in a precinct need to come forward with allegations of fraud or error and $50 in cash for a petition. Their efforts could focus on specific precincts, meaning Vanasdale could call for a recount in just a handful of suspect precincts, rather than having voters come forward throughout the county with petitions and money. There are 89 precincts in Butler County from which to choose.