A candidate for San Diego mayor says she was disqualified from the March primary ballot essentially because she’s homeless, which prompted her to register for office with a mailing address she didn’t realize was barely outside city limits.
Once she was aware of the problem, Athena Johnson submitted as a replacement address the Kearny Mesa cross streets where she usually sleeps. But City Clerk Diane Fuentes said it was too late.
It’s unusual for a candidate to be disqualified from the ballot for failing to submit an address that makes them eligible. Disqualifications typically are the result of candidates not collecting enough valid signatures.
Fuentes said she sympathizes with Johnson. But she also said she must consistently enforce the rules, which dictate that every candidate must submit completed paperwork — including a valid address — by the filing deadline, which was Dec. 7 for the March primary.
Johnson, an 18-year-old nursing student, submitted the updated address — Shawline Street and Ronson Road — on Dec. 13, Fuentes said. The new address was accepted as legitimate, but the deadline had already passed.
Fuentes said she has instructed her staff to be more adamant to candidates in the future that they should verify that the address they are submitting makes them eligible to run for the office they seek.
But she stressed that the onus is on the candidate to submit an eligible address, not on the clerk’s office to verify it immediately when submitted.
Johnson said she feels cheated and blames the clerk’s staff for giving her bad guidance.
“All I wanted was a fair chance,” she said. “These are highly paid individuals with only one job — to prevent problems like my situation from occurring.”
