Rejected Ward 1 candidate Michelle Goodridge is consulting a lawyer after getting "totally blindsided" with the news that her candidacy for the seat on Cambridge council was deemed invalid earlier this week.
According to the city clerk in charge of the nominations, Goodridge was missing one signature of support.
City clerk Danielle Manton certified the list of 33 candidates for this fall's municipal election Monday, revealing that one candidate had to be rejected due to "missing documentation, signatures or fees."
In an email to CambridgeToday, Manton cited the Municipal Elections Act rules and listed reasons why a candidate can be disqualified by the clerk.
Apart from ensuring the candidate's qualifications to hold office, the list includes the candidate's refusal to provide proof of qualification or identification, an incomplete nomination paper, failure to pay the prescribed filing fee, or failure to provide a financial statement for any office in the previous regular election or any new election in which the individual may have been a candidate.
"There may be other circumstances in which a candidate is disqualified from being nominated or elected other than those identified above," reads the list extracted from the Municipal Elections Act.
"If not satisfied that a person is qualified to be nominated or that the nomination complies with this Act, the clerk shall reject the nomination."
Manton called Goodridge immediately after confirming the list of candidates at 4 p.m. Monday.
"She said, I'm terribly sorry, I didn't want to have to do this but I only have 25 signatures for you and one of them is missing," Goodridge said.
The news came as a complete shock for the local heritage advocate, who filed in June with more than the required 25 signatures from supporters.
Goodridge, who sits as a member on the city's heritage advisory committee and works in library services at Wilfrid Laurier University, told Manton at the time of filing that she had 28 signatures and went over her documentation to make sure everything was in place.
"She goes through the papers with you. I made note, 'hey, I know I need 25 signatures I brought extras just in case.' She said fabulous, that's great. Went through everything, she said everything was in order, we were good to go and then gave me photocopies of everything.
"I was under the assumption everything was fine."
The next time she heard about it was Monday when she was given the bad news.
Goodridge told Manton she was certain she supplied 28 signatures. "She said absolutely we only have 25."
The one that was missing was the "very first signature on the very first page" and was in the middle of the documents. Goodridge has no idea what happened to the extra signatures she provided.
Goodridge met with Manton at city hall on Tuesday to see if she could determine what happened and said she was told "it could have been lost during the process."
"I had all the folks that had signed that page email the city saying, yes, we were number 18, we were number 19 when we signed, we still definitely support her," Goodridge said.
"And they've said no they can't accept that."
Goodridge said she's contacted a lawyer who will be looking for precedent and any options they may have to appeal.
According to the Elections Act, the clerk’s decision to certify or reject a nomination is final.
