The mayor's race in Laurel became more competitive after the city's Board of Election supervisors voted in a special session Sept. 14 to allow a third candidate to enter the race.
Valerie Cunningham's application as a mayoral candidate, which was submitted 20 minutes before the filing deadline, was initially ruled incomplete by city officials because she was one signature short of the 30 petition signatures candidates are required to collect.
But after hearing evidence on the case, the three-member board decided that a signature that had been rejected because the resident could not be found on city or county voter registration lists, was indeed valid.
"I'm obviously pleased that the process worked, but the process needs to be tweaked so we don't have loopholes and problems like this in the future," Cunningham said after the special meeting.
Cunningham ran unsuccessfully for the District 1 seat on the Prince George's County Council last year.
The filing deadline for Laurel's Nov. 1 mayor and city council elections was 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 6. According to Council Clerk Kimberly Rau, several of the signatures on Cunningham's application, which she submitted at 4:40 p.m., were illegible or not on city or county voter registration rolls.
"At 6 p.m., we only had 29 signatures, including hers, which I told her she was allowed to do," Rau said. "A neighbor of hers came in after 5 p.m., but we couldn't let her sign because it was after the deadline. We told her, had she come in earlier, she could have gone back out and gotten additional signatures. She seemed appreciative and said, 'I guess it was not meant to be,' " Rau said.
But Cunningham returned to city hall Sept. 12 to get an opinion on one of her submitted signatures, and brought a statement from the resident attesting to her residency within the city limits.
The signature in question belonged to Barbara L. Jones, who used Gorman Avenue on Cunningham's petition. According to statements given at the meeting, Jones is still listed by the city and county at her former address on West Street. Both of the addresses are within the city limits, but because Johnson had not changed her address, during the signature verification process she did not show up in the system on Gorman Avenue, which is why her name was ruled as an invalid signature.
Rau said after making a call to county officials Sept. 12, she learned that Jones was on the county's list for her former West Street address.
"The county confirmed Barbara L. Jones at 803 West Street and said if she showed up at the polls, she'd be allowed to vote, even if she had not changed her address," Rau said. "The county and the state said the signature should be counted."
Rau said that since the city had "never had this happen before," city attorney Robert Manzi contacted Greenbelt officials, who also require signatures, for their opinion, and was told they would consider Cunningham's application packet complete.
At that point, city officials turned the matter over to the board of Election Supervisors. City attorney Manzi told board members, "There was no legal requirement that a person change their address … so the mistake was made by the county and us. The error that created the situation wasn't (Cunningham's) error.
After hearing additional facts, board members voted unanimously that Cunningham's packet met all deadline requirements and was legitimate.
In hindsight, Manzi said Cunningham should not have been allowed to take her application with her on Sept. 6, which Rau admitted was a mistake she made and said had the packet been kept, she would have been able to do additional follow-up on the petition signatures.
"We didn't want to turn her away for one signature. I should have kept the packet," Rau said.
Former City Council member Michael Sarich, who is also challenging two-term Mayor Craig Moe in the November election, described the board's decision as a "tough" one and raised the issue of the filing deadline being honored.
"On one hand a deadline's a deadline and everyone has to be responsible for meeting it," Sarich said. "When we got our signatures, we checked with the Prince George's County Board of Election's data base and I turned in 50 names. I also came in at noon in case the county's list was not updated to make sure my signatures were good."
Rau pointed out that candidates had six months to submit their applications and that most candidates came in well before the deadline or early on the last filing day, with twice the number of needed signatures, things Cunningham did not do.
But Cunningham said although she'd been considering running for mayor for the past year, she was a bit nervous about entering the race and did not decide to throw her hat in the ring until the last minute.
"I decided that day (Sept. 6) to do it and to not allow fear to keep me from going after something I wanted to do," Cunningham said. "I was encouraged by others to run and I think my chances of winning are great."
Adrian Rousseau, who is running for the City Council's at-large seat against the incumbent, Council President Michael Leszcz, attended the meeting and said he felt the board made the right decision regarding Cunningham's candidacy.
"I would feel the same way if she was running in my race," Rousseau said. "Hopefully, this will stimulate the community and get more voters out on Election Day."
Those application packets will be officially certified on Oct. 3 by the local election board.
To avoid similar snafus in future election years, Rau said she and Manzi discussed recommending that Moe and City Council members consider introducing legislation to get rid of the requirement for 30 signatures.
"It's archaic and, except for Greenbelt, other cities and towns don't require it," Rau said.