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Peterson's Petition Drive Falls Short

by Jenna Carlesso

August 21, 2010

Alyssa Peterson, a city activist who lost the Democratic primary for the 6th House District to incumbent Hector Robles, was two signatures short on her petition to become an independent candidate on the November ballot.

She needed 53 to be listed on the ballot, but Av Harris, a spokesman for the secretary of the state's office, said Friday that Peterson's petitions had 51 valid signatures.

Peterson said she was surprised because the registrars of voters office told her she had qualified.

"I was informed previously by the registrar that I was OK," she said.

Peterson said she went to city hall and learned that one of the signatures that had been rejected was that of a Democratic town committee member, Alex Rodriguez. She said she's working with the registrars' office to determine if there might be errors.

"I made an appointment to go and check their files to look at other missing voters who might've been purged from the database by accident or whose names might have been misspelled," Peterson said. "I've found one error, and I expect to find more Monday."

At this point, Harris said, Peterson could run as a write-in candidate. Or, he said, "she could always take it to court."

"It sometimes happens that people are disqualified. It's not a bad idea for candidates to get more signatures than they need" in case some of them are denied, Harris said.