Five candidates filed petitions to run for Cincinnati mayor last week, but only four had enough valid signatures to make the Sept. 10 primary ballot, according to the Hamilton County Board of Elections.
Stacy Smith, a first-time candidate, submitted petitions with 794 signatures, but only 367 of them were valid signatures of Cincinnati voters.
Candidates must have 500 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.
Another candidate, Sandra Queen Noble, just barely made it - she submitted 1,418 signatures and 503 were valid. Noble has run for numerous offices in the past, most recently Cincinnati City Council in 2011, when she finished dead last in a field of 21 candidates.
Three other candidates - Democrats Roxanne Qualls and John Cranley and Libertarian Jim Berns - qualified with 680, 646, and 515 valid signatures respectively.
The top two finishers in the Sept. 10 primary will face each other in the November election for mayor's office. Mayor Mark Mallory can't run for re-election because of the city's term limits law.
