Tom Donaldson, an independent candidate for mayor of Butler, had his nomination petition for the upcoming Nov. 4 election thrown out by a Common Pleas Court judge.

Judge Kelley Streib issued her decision Tuesday, Aug. 12, determining 15 of Donaldson’s 111 total signatures must be stricken from his petition, leaving only 96 remaining. This places Donaldson below the 100-signature threshold to have his name on the ballot.

The challenge was submitted on Thursday by city Councilman Don Shearer, who is running as the Republican Party candidate for mayor against Democratic Party incumbent Bob Dandoy. A hearing was held over the challenge on Monday.

According to the decision, most of the 15 stricken signatures are due to illegibility or incorrect addresses. Four other signatures were conceded by Donaldson prior to the hearing.

Shortly after the decision was released, Shearer followed with a statement where he said his challenge was “about the integrity of our elections as a whole.”

“While I respect anyone willing to put their name forward for public office, those names should be submitted with honesty and integrity — both of which were severely lacking in Mr. Donaldson’s papers,” Shearer said.

Donaldson said that he holds no hard feelings over the outcome of the challenge, calling it a part of how politics works.

“I slept good on Thursday when I learned about the challenge, and I’ve slept good every single night since,” Donaldson said. “Even after this, I’ll sleep good tonight, too.”

He said the thing that upset him most was the voters’ signatures being thrown out, as he states that every signature except the ones he conceded belonged to a city resident.

“Everyone who signed and had their name stricken was disenfranchised by a Republican candidate and the Republican Party,” Donaldson said.

Donaldson, who served as mayor as a Republican from 2014 to 2018 and narrowly lost a seat on city council by a 55-vote margin in 2023, said he’s unlikely to appeal the decision and is unsure on whether or not he will run a write-in campaign in November.