State officials announced Tuesday a special election will be held in March to replace a Butler County state representative.

Tedd Nesbit, a Republican who represented the 8th district in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, resigned at the start of this year to begin his new role as a Mercer County Court of Common Pleas judge.

Mike Turzai, speaker of the state House, announced Tuesday that a special election will be held March 17 to fill Nesbit's old seat.

The seat covers much of the eastern half of Mercer County, as well as a portion of northern Butler County.

The special election will come less than two months before the general primary on April 28, during which voters will weigh in on the presidential primary. While Pennsylvania primary elections are typically held the third Tuesday of May, the election is held on the fourth Tuesday of April during presidential years.

The special election will only fill the seat for the duration of Nesbit's current term, which expires at the end of 2020.

That means the April 28 primary ballot will also ask voters to pick nominees for Nesbit's seat. Whichever candidate wins the special election could, in theory, lose the seat at the end of the year to the candidate who wins the general election. Alternately, the same candidate could win both.

Shari Brewer, director of Butler County's election bureau, said the timing will keep her office busy in the pre-primary season. The election will be carried out by Brewer's department in coordination with Mercer County's bureau.

“It's going to be a challenge, not only because that's just about six weeks before the presidential primary,” Brewer said.

They're also rolling out some new changes during the primary, she said, such as a longer voter registration period and a dramatically widened mail-in ballot program.

“We are going to be busy,” Brewer said. “We're in the process of bringing in some extra help right now and getting them trained. But we'll be able to do it. We'll find a way, one way or the other.”

The Republican Party began preemptively organizing a nomination process in December for the special election, according to Trish Lindsay, a co-vice chairwoman for the Butler County GOP.

Lindsay said she knows of 11 candidates planning on pitching themselves as candidates for the party's nomination, adding that the figure is growing almost daily. She opted not to release the list until all of the party's candidates are finalized.

“We've been interviewing candidates, and the numbers are growing,” Lindsay said. “We're even interviewing another candidate tomorrow.”

Republican committee members from both Mercer and Butler counties will vote to select their preferred candidates. From Butler, nine committee members are on the selection committee along with 11 Mercer county committee members. The ratio was determined based on precinct level voter turnout in the 2016 general election, Lindsay said.

On Jan. 13, committee members are going to hold a meet and greet with candidates at a private event at Grove City High School.

They're tentatively planning on voting just three days later at a follow-up committee meeting Jan. 16 at the same school.

The Democratic Party has a smaller field so far, explained the party's Butler County chairwoman, Catherine Lalonde. She also declined to release names, saying instead that candidates will declare for themselves publicly.

The Democrats have at least one person interested in the race, Lalonde said. They have yet to set a date to nominate anyone, but plan on selecting a candidate soon. Lalonde is conferring with Andy Harkulich, chairman of the Mercer County Democratic Party, to organize the selection process.