A Common Pleas Court judge said she will issue a decision on a challenge to the nomination papers Tom Donaldson filed to run for Butler mayor as an independent.

Judge Kelley Streib didn’t immediately rule during a hearing Monday, Aug.11, into the challenge filed by Councilman Donald Shearer, the Republican nominee for mayor.

In his petition filed Thursday, Shearer challenged 18 of the 113 signatures on the nomination papers filed by Donaldson, a former mayor, to run for the office as an independent. To get on the Nov. 4 ballot, he needs 100 signatures of registered voters living in the city.

Incumbent Bob Dandoy is the Democratic nominee.

Before the hearing, Donaldson conceded that five of the signatures are from people who do not live in the city or are not registered voters.

During the hearing Donaldson asked Chantell McCurdy, elections bureau director, about the 13 other signatures being challenged. She said all are registered voters, but some of the addresses they put on the nomination papers are different from the addresses on their voter registrations.

Donaldson said he filed his papers himself in good faith, but doesn’t want to see older voters disenfranchised because they have poor handwriting or forgot their address.

Shearer’s attorney, Nicole Thurner, questioned the validity of several names, signatures and addresses on the papers. One man included his middle initial in his signature, but left out the initial in his printed name. One person used her new address, but didn’t change her address for her voter registration, which contains her old address. Another signer didn’t print his name. A woman used her nickname instead of her legal first name, Thurner said.

In the challenge filed in court, Thurner claimed some of the signatures on Donaldson’s papers are illegible, some of those who signed are not registered voters, some of the signatories’ addresses are not in the city, the street where one signer lives is in Butler Township, the same person appears to have signed for two people and one person dated his signature Aug. 11, which is after the Aug. 8 deadline to submit petitions.

Streib said her main concern is the validity of the signatures. She said she wants to make sure the people who signed are the people they claim to be. She said she would issue a decision Monday or Tuesday. No decision was filed Monday.