Candidates For Lancaster Common Council File Challenges

The race for a Lancaster Common Council seat already has heated up while the actual election is still a couple of months away. The two candidates for the District 2 seat — incumbent Bob Schmidt and former At-large Council Member Kate Reuter — filed challenges claiming the other’s name should be removed from the ballot for allegedly violating state election rules. Candidates must collect at least 20 signatures to appear on the ballot for the April 6 election. Schmidt and Reuter filed nomination papers weeks before the Jan. 5 filing deadline, but Schmidt returned to City Hall, shortly before the 5 p.m. cutoff to inspect Reuter’s papers. The next day, he filed a challenge. Schmidt said the address printed on the header of Reuter’s papers belonged to that of another candidate with a nearly identical name — District 4 Council Member Katie Reuter, who is running for re-election in April. The two women are not related. Schmidt claimed the address could have led signatories to believe they were signing for Katie Reuter, not Kate Reuter. State code requires that candidates provide accurate information, or all signatures on the offending pages can be rejected. City Clerk David Kurihara prints forms for each candidate as a courtesy. He attributed the misprinted address on the form he supplied to a computer error, which he overlooked. Meanwhile, Reuter filed a challenge against Schmidt, claiming that Schmidt had not personally obtained at least one signature on his nomination papers.