Charlene Hardin Off the Ballot

It looks like you won't have Milwaukee School Board member Charlene Hardin to kick around anymore.

Hardin won't be on the ballot.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

The lack of nine valid signatures appeared Thursday to have brought an end to Charlene Hardin's controversial, 12-year career on the Milwaukee School Board.

"This letter is to formally notify you that your nomination papers did not include 400 valid signatures required to have your name placed on the ballot," Susan Edman, executive director of the city Election Commission, wrote to Hardin.

The election rule is simple: No 400 signatures, no chance (except possibly a write-in campaign) to win another four-year term this spring.

Unless Hardin successfully appeals the decision, that leaves three candidates in the race for what will now be an open seat - and it means at least a third of the board will be new after the April 7 election. Two other members, Danny Goldberg and Jennifer Morales, did not seek re-election.

Hardin submitted about 550 signatures on 56 pages of petitions Tuesday, the deadline for filing for the spring election.

But some were crossed out, said Neil Albrecht, deputy director of the commission, and many others were flawed.

"Many of her signers were outside her School Board district, and there's nothing a candidate can do to correct that," Albrecht said.

After commission staffers reviewed the petitions, they determined there were only 361 valid signatures, Albrecht said. Of the invalid signatures, 30 have technical errors that can be corrected through affidavits, he said. If that is done, it would still leave Hardin nine signatures short of the minimum.

Well.

The lack of valid signatures appears to solve the Hardin problem.

Milwaukee County prosecutors determined that Hardin was incompetent, but what appeared to be her abuse of taxpayer dollars wasn't criminal behavior. Investigators didn't even find it necessary to interview Hardin to come to that conclusion. Weird. I think that decision by investigators was a display of incompetence.

No matter. Hardin didn't deliver valid signatures so her days on the School Board are most likely numbered.

Very convenient. That takes care of the Hardin mess. It closes that chapter.

Hardin said that she was the victim of a "high-tech lynching" and "yellow journalism." I suppose she still feels that she's being victimized.

I don't think she should complain. She's extremely lucky to be considered so "incompetent."