LAWTON – The Comanche County Election Board disqualified a candidate for the Ward 4 seat on the Lawton City Council Wednesday.
After a short hearing, the board voted 3-0 to strike Derek M. Lemos Sr.’s name from the ballot for the Aug. 23 primary election. The decision leaves Barbara Curry, Eric Sharum and George Gill on the ballot.
The four candidates filed their declarations of candidacy with the election board office earlier this month. The day after the filing period ended, Curry and her campaign team discovered that Lemos had not registered as a voter in Ward 4 at least six months before the filing period, as required by state law.
“He was living in Ward 4, but he didn’t register until June 1 as a voter,” Curry said in an interview after the hearing. “You have to be a registered voter for six months in the ward prior to filing. So, it was only 12 days before we filed that he was registered.”
Curry said she called Lemos twice – once on June 16 and once on June 17, a couple of hours before the deadline to challenge someone’s candidacy – to ask him to consider withdrawing from the race. But on both occasions, Lemos refused to drop out.
“He took his stance: ‘I’m not going to withdraw. I ‘m going to wait to see what happens,’” Curry said. “At that point, I felt it was necessary to protest against his candidacy for the integrity of the election. That means more to me than everything – integrity of the election and the fairness to other candidates.”
Lemos did not return a call seeking comment Wednesday.
Curry, Sharum and Gill are competing to replace Ward 4 Councilman Jay Burk, who is not seeking re-election this year due to term limits. The winning candidate will need to capture a simple majority of the vote – 50% plus one – to avoid a runoff election.
If the primary election does not produce a winner, the top two vote-getters will square off again in the Nov. 8 general election.
The only other competitive race on the Aug. 23 primary ballot pits Ward 3 Councilman Linda Chapman against challenger Cartessa Smith.
The winners of the two competitive races will join Ward 5 Councilman Allan Hampton, whose bid for another term did not draw an opponent, on the council in January. All three will serve three-year terms.