Round two of Vecchio versus Santorum takes place today at the Allegheny County elections offices, with the former senator's Nov. 5 absentee ballot under challenge by a Penn Hills couple determined to prove that he doesn't live there.

In one corner are Rick and Karen Santorum, who list a legal address in Penn Hills but have resided in northern Virginia. The former U.S. senator declines to say precisely where in hopes of warding off his enemies.

In the other corner is Ed Vecchio who, with his wife, Penn Hills Democratic Chairwoman Erin Vecchio, tried two years ago to prevent the Santorums from voting in Penn Hills, saying they don't really reside there and that the home they own in that municipality was rented to another family.

This time the Santorums voted absentee. Ed Vecchio said he paid $10 apiece to challenge each ballot.

As ever, each side has only the warmest of feelings.

"Let him prove it otherwise. The guy's a weasel," said Mr. Vecchio.

Among proofs that the family doesn't really live in Penn Hills and is thus not entitled to vote there, Mr. Vecchio insists that the Santorum children are not registered with the Penn Hills School District.

The Santorum children were, in fact, withdrawn from that district two years ago after Erin Vecchio, who also serves on the Penn Hills school board, filed a complaint with the state Department of Education, accusing the family of improperly billing the district for $100,000 in educational fees for a cyber charter school the children attended from their Virginia home while he was in the Senate.

That case was tossed on a technicality.

Today's case, scheduled for 10 a.m. at the elections office, could end on an absentee note in itself.

Mr. Santorum, who served as a Pennsylvania delegate to the Republican National Convention this September, said he's tired of fighting with the Vecchios. He has no plans to attend. Or to fight. Or to think about it if he can help it.

"They can do whatever they want to do. It's just -- I'm just not going to engage in that," he said. "If someone who has lived in that community for the past 22 years who still owns a home and pays taxes there can't vote there, then that says something about the Democrats in Allegheny County."