The lone Urban County Council candidate defending his seat tomorrow is facing an 11th hour lawsuit alleging the required signatures he submitted were not properly notarized. 1st District Councilman James Brown is running against businessman and political newcomer Jim Burton, who has said he wasn’t responsible for the filing.
Brown’s attorney, Don Todd, calls the move “rotten.”
"They wait to the very last minute to file it, so that the court doesn't have time to properly sit down and analyze the issue, and they usually get press. And the public when they see it, they think there's something wrong and they don't understand it. They don't comprehend it, so it adversely impacts the officeholder or the candidate whose petition is being challenged," he tells WUKY.
Todd lays blame for the notary error on the county clerk’s office and says it should not disqualify Brown, who collected the signatures himself.
The suit also alleges some of the names didn’t meet all the necessary criteria – a point Todd concedes, though he adds that even with those tossed out Brown still delivered more than the required 100 signatures.
The matter will be handled in court after the election and Brown’s name will stay on the ballot.