LOCAL : Candidate’s Appeal Rejected
A state appellate panel has rejected a Lancaster City Council candidate’s appeal of a ruling that his name could not appear on a council election ballot because he lived outside the city limits--even though his mailbox was deemed to be in the city.
But the candidate, Los Angeles County firefighter Michael Singer, has moved into his mother-in-law’s home in Lancaster and plans to run as a write-in regardless.
City Clerk Carla Johnson said today that Singer has filed the papers necessary to be a write-in candidate and that his new residence has been confirmed. His eligibility will be official after a routine check of his qualifying signatures, she said.
After city officials refused to place him on the April 10 ballot, Singer argued before Lancaster Court Commissioner Victor Reichman last week that he had been assured by county election officials that he was an eligible Lancaster candidate. His attorney said that an appeal court once accepted a mailbox as a candidate’s residence and that his client, who is buying a home in the city, should not be faulted for the error by the county.
The commissioner ruled that Singer could not appear on the ballot, however, and on Wednesday, a two-judge panel of the State Court of Appeal agreed.
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