Bloomington mayoral hopeful falls 14 signatures short of ballot qualification, will challenge count
Even though a crucial deadline has now passed, it’s still not certain if another candidate will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot for Bloomington mayor, besides the Democratic Party’s nominee, Kerry Thomson.
At a minute before noon on Friday (June 30), Joe Davis arrived at Monroe County’s election offices at 7th and Madison streets with another batch of petition signatures.
Davis was petitioning to qualify for the Nov. 7 ballot as an independent candidate for Bloomington mayor.
He had already handed in several signatures over the last couple months—including a few batches earlier Friday morning. Up to that point, his running total of verified signatures stood at 332. That left him 20 short of the 352 he needed.
It’s not a nice round figure, because the minimum number of signatures is defined as 2 percent of the total votes cast in the city of Bloomington in the most recent statewide race for secretary of state.
On Friday at 11:59 a.m., which was a minute before the deadline, Davis handed only a dozen more signatures across the counter.
He and the election clerks alike already knew it would not be enough to put him on the ballot—even if all 12 checked out as active registered voters in the city of Bloomington.
About 10 minutes later, the clerks had disqualified half of the last 12 signatures that Davis had submitted—making his final total 338, or 14 short of the required number.
But Davis later told The B Square that he will be filing a challenge, based on what he said were around 200 signatures that have been disqualified for one reason or another.
The deadline for the Republican Party to caucus a candidate onto the Ballot is July 3, but that looks unlikely.
Signatures on qualifying petitions get disqualified for various reasons. Some people sign a petition, even though they’re not registered to vote at all. Others will sign, but are registered at an address some place other than inside Bloomington city limits.
The category of disqualification that Davis will likely target are signatures of “pending voters”—people whose registration was still pending and not yet active. Indiana’s voter registration guide says that a voter has to wait seven days after a postcard is mailed to the address where they registered, before they become an active voter.
Davis told The B Square that he will be filing a CAN-1 form, which can be used by a
“a candidate seeking to contest the denial of certification due to insufficient signatures.”
The form will be filed with the Monroe County election board. The board has a regular meeting set for Thursday, July 6. But it is unlikely that the board would hear and settle the issue at that meeting—especially if Davis has not filed the challenge by then.
Another relevant deadline on the election calendar is July 17, which is the last day an independent candidate like Davis can file his declaration of candidacy. (The deadlines for submitting signatures and filing the declaration of candidacy are different.)
During the primary election season, Davis was invited to one candidate forum, where he participated alongside the Democratic Party primary candidates.
Davis appeared uninvited to another candidate forum, but was eventually allowed by the organizers to participate.
In a separate matter, on Friday Davis won a preliminary injunction in the Monroe County circuit court, which prevents the city of Bloomington, from enforcing an order for abatement against Davis’s Washington Street house. Davis filed a lawsuit to prevent the city from removing various items that he has place around the outside of his property, which the city considers to be refuse, and in violation of city code.
In March, Bloomington’s board of public works approved the abatement order. Shortly after that, Davis filed his lawsuit against the city. He is representing himself.
In the order that granted the preliminary injunction, circuit court judge Kara Krothe wrote:
[Davis’s] threatened injury, the loss of property that has not been inventoried, outweighs the potential harm to the [Davis] which is [the city] having to field calls from neighbors who don’t like the way [Davis’s] property looks. Fielding complaints from neighbors is a municipal function, and although, possibly annoying, the Court does not agree that it could be characterized as harmful.
The city’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit is set for hearing on Aug. 3.
