Pennsylvania Statutes Title 53 P.S. Municipal and Quasi-Municipal Corporations § 12586. Time, place and conduct of election;  returns;  certificate

The council shall in all cases fix the time of holding the public election to obtain the consent of the electors to incur new debt or increase indebtedness on the day of a municipal or general election, unless more than ninety days shall intervene between the date of the ordinance providing for such election and the day of holding the next succeeding municipal or general election.  If any other day be fixed for holding such election, the cost of holding the same shall be paid by the city.

Such election shall be held at the places, during the hours, and under the regulations, provided by law for holding municipal elections, and shall be conducted by the election officers provided by law to conduct municipal elections in such city, unless the said election be held on the day of a general election, in which case the laws governing general elections shall apply.  The question whether new debt shall be incurred or indebtedness increased as authorized in the ordinance shall be printed upon the ballot in brief form, followed by the words “yes” and “no” with appropriate voting squares, and if such question shall be submitted at an election of public officers, it shall be printed below the groups of candidates.  The election officers shall count the votes cast at such election, and shall make a return thereof to the prothonotary of the court of common pleas of the county containing such city, duly certified as required by law.  When such count shall have been completed, a certificate of the total number of electors voting “yes” and of the total number of electors voting “no” on such question shall be made by the court, and filed in the office of the prothonotary, and a copy thereof, under the seal of the said court, shall be furnished by the prothonotary to the council, and the same shall be entered upon its journal.

In conducting such election, and counting and making return of the vote cast, the officers of such election and the court shall be governed by the laws regulating such election, and all the penalties of the said election laws for the violation thereof shall apply to the electors and election officers participating in such election.

If by the returns of such election it shall appear that a majority of the electors voting thereon gave their consent to incurring new debt or increasing indebtedness, as authorized in the ordinance, such ordinance shall, as of the date of the court's certificate of the result thereof, be effective to authorize such new debt to be incurred or such increase of indebtedness;  but if it shall appear that a majority of the electors voting thereon did not give their consent to incurring such new debt or increasing indebtedness, as authorized in the ordinance, such ordinance shall be ineffective to authorize such new debt to be incurred or such increase of indebtedness:  Provided, That should the Constitution of this Commonwealth require the consent of more than a majority of the electors voting thereon to enable the city to incur such new debt or increase its indebtedness, such ordinance shall be effective to authorize such new debt or such increase of indebtedness only if the required number of electors shall have given their consent thereto.