Cheryl “Shelley” Keeling, a candidate in the race for the soon-to-be vacant District 11 City Council seat, is continuing to fight for a place on the Sept. 10 primary ballot, despite a majority of her signatures being ruled invalid by the Board of Elections commissioners last Tuesday.

“I am confident I can stay in the race,” Keeling said.

Keeling’s petitions for candidacy for the 11th Council District ballot were challenged by Shelia Sanchez, a volunteer with Cliff Stanton’s campaign. Out of the 1,006 signatures Keeling got from voters, more than 700 were challenged by Sanchez. Sanchez accused Keeling of submitting signatures by voters who were not registered with the Democratic Party, people who live outside of District 11, and signatures and addresses being illegible.

According to the attorney representing Sanchez, Ezra Glaser, and Stanton’s Campaign Manager, Jennifer Firestone, many of the addresses of the people who signed were in fact from Co-op City and neighborhoods in Queens and Manhattan.

“I don’t know where she was campaigning,” said Glaser. “But it doesn’t seem like she really knows her district.”

Keeling says she did get her signatures within the district, mostly in Riverdale, at shopping areas and train stops, as well as the Stop and Shop supermarket in Kingsbridge. She also said she collected signatures in a couple of local churches and inside a few neighborhood apartment buildings.

The BOE ruled that 579 of the signatures were invalid. Out of the invalid signatures, 211 were from people not registered with BOE, 146 were from voters living outside of the district, and 61 were from people not registered with the Democratic Party. Others had illegible names or addresses with the signatures.

In the end, the BOE concluded that Keeling only had 427 valid signatures, less than two dozen shy of the 450 she needs to have her name on the ballot.

On Wednesday, July 31, Keeling and those representing Sanchez, including  Glaser, Firestone, and campaign worker Robert Giuffre, met at the Board of Elections office at 1780 Grand Concourse so that Keeling could have a chance to get the BOE’s decision reversed.

Once both parties were present, everyone sat down with the BOE-appointed referee who told Keeling that she had to find at least 23 more signatures that were valid. Keeling and Stanton’s campaign workers would then have to go line-by-line and add up all the valid signatures.

However, during the hearing, negotiations were going nowhere. Keeling did not have the court rulings on hand, and neither side seemed to be able to come to an agreement as to which signatures were valid and which were not. Glaser continued to ask Keeling for specific names of the people who signed, but Keeling was unable to provide the names. The discussion got very heated, as both Glaser and Keeling exchanged insults throughout the ordeal.

It was almost 3 p.m. when the referee came back into the office to see if an agreement could be made. However, even with her mediating, the whole process was still at a standstill. She decided to give Keeling until 10 a.m. on Thursday to come up with a bill of particulars — a detailed written statement of her claims as to why the signatures are valid.

Glaser, Firestone, and Giuffre all believe that her chances of maintaining her candidacy at this point are very slim.

“Right now she’s not even on the ballot,” Firestone said after a long day of arguing. “She shouldn’t even be at the debate tomorrow [Norwood News debate on Aug. 1].”

Keeling did participate in the debate last Thursday and characterized herself as a fighter who wouldn’t back down to any challenge. On Monday, Keeling said she believes she still has a strong chance of staying in the race.

“There are legal issues also that could weigh in my favor,” Keeling said.

According to Firestone, Keeling was unable to present a proper bill of particulars on Thursday, and the referee stated that she could not continue with the negotiations. However, Keeling said that after going to court on Monday, she has submitted everything and that the referee will give her report at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 8.

Keeling and Andrew Cohen, another candidate in the 11th Council District race, have criticized Stanton’s campaign for going after Keeling and trying to bounce her from the race.

In the past, Stanton has advocated, generally, for more competition in Bronx political races, saying the political establishment discourages opposition candidates from running. But he said Keeling’s petition signatures were so weak, he didn’t think she deserved to be on the ballot.

Cohen, a lawyer who is backed by the Bronx political establishment (which often successfully challenges opponents’ petitions), said he believes the court will rule in favor of Keeling.