Zukerberg

Paul Zukerberg, a defense attorney who is pushing for the decriminalization of marijuana, will appear on the ballot for the April 23 special election for an At-Large seat on the D.C. Council.

During a brief hearing today, the D.C. Registrar said that Zukerberg had 3,000 valid signatures on nominating petitions, exactly the amount needed to appear on the ballot. Zukerberg’s petitions had been challenged by Tac Tacelosky, a supporter of fellow special election contender Elissa Silverman, who withdrew his challenge upon hearing the registrar’s determination.

Though happy to appear on the ballot, Zukerberg also expressed frustration with the process that got him there. He said he spent the last three weeks confirming the validity of those signatures that were challenged, leaving him no time to campaign or raise money. He has accused Silverman’s campaign of orchestrating the challenge.

Last week Zukerberg blamed the D.C. Board of Elections for not updating the city’s voter rolls with tens of thousands of change-of-address forms filed by voters last November. As a consequence of the omission, he said, many residents who signed his petitions came up as invalid because their addresses did not match. Today he said that a firm he had hired to look into the problem had found up to 66,000 voters on file whose change-of-address requests had not been properly filed by the elections board.

A challenge to the nominating petitions of another candidate, John Settles, is still pending. The board is expected to rule today on whether or not Settles will appear on the ballot.