Sekou Biddle’s nominating petitions.

First, there were 21. Then 11. Now, only 10 candidates remain in the race for the April 26 At-Large Special Election — and in the coming week, there’s a slight chance that the field may be narrowed down further.

Over the weekend, Calvin Gurley was knocked out of contention for not attaining the 3,000 signatures necessary to get on the ballot for the election to fill the seat once held by D.C. Council Chair Kwame “Fully Loaded” Brown. Ten other candidates turned in the required signatures last Wednesday, ranging from Interim Councilmember Sekou Biddle’s 8,800 to former Ward 1 council candidate Bryan Weaver’s 3,400.

Saturday marked the start of a 10-day challenge period, during which residents are allowed to inspect any and all of the nominating petitions turned in by candidates for irregularities that could disqualify certain signatures and potentially knock candidates off of the ballot. Any D.C. resident can truck on down to the Board of Elections and Ethics — and yes, the office is open today, with BOEE workers being allowed to take the mandatory furlough day at another point during the year — request any of the nominating petitions and go through the painstaking process of checking signatures against information in the D.C. voter registry. In the brief visit I made to BOEE this morning, I checked a few of Biddle’s signatures against information in the registry, and everything seemed to come up clean.