Some candidates and supporters might protest Tuesday as the Hamilton County Board of Elections makes official the list of candidates for Cincinnati mayor.
Nine people filed to run for mayor, but the board of elections staff determined only six had the required 500 signatures from registered voters needed to be placed on the ballot.
The four-member board of elections, composed of two Republicans and two Democrats, will certify the candidates' petitions Tuesday morning in a meeting at the board of elections' headquarters in Norwood.
The BOE staff found three candidates didn't gather enough valid signatures: City Councilman Wendell Young, tech entrepreneur Adam Koehler and activist Kelli Prather.
At least one of the candidates, Kelli Prather, 48, from Madisonville, plans on contesting that finding. She fell 56 signatures short of 500, according to BOE staff.
Prather told The Enquirer she'll be at the BOE in Norwood Tuesday with supporters to argue she gathered enough signatures. She said she turned in three rounds of signatures, including 970 on Feb. 18.
Some pages in the final round on Feb. 18 did get wet during the recent snowstorms, she said.
"I believe this is a huge miscarriage of justice considering I didn't wait until the last minute," Prather said. "I was collecting signatures since last August."
She has asked on Facebook for "a few people who understand that Black people are not slaves, indentured servants or inmates in Hamilton County who are allowed to move about freely, to show up in support."
The Hamilton County Board of Elections will take up the vote sometime after 8:30 a.m., when the meeting starts. The BOE will also hear a challenge filed by Hyde Park conservative activist Mark Miller on the validity of the petition filed by mayoral candidate Aftab Pureval. Pureval is currently the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts.
Miller, in the challenge, has claimed Pureval didn't file the proper affidavits with the petition.
How to view Tuesday's meeting
The BOE meeting will be open to the public and streamed online here.
You can attend in person, but due to COVID restrictions, there'll be some social distancing requirements. Only nine people not with the board of elections are allowed at one time in the actual meeting room. There'll be a large overflow room with the meeting streamed on monitors for additional people.
People will be rotated from the main meeting room to the overflow room and back as needed depending on who is speaking and what's on the agenda, said Sherry Poland, Hamilton County Board of Elections director.
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