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SALT LAKE CITY — A candidate for Salt Lake City Council has been disqualified due to a campaign finance reporting issue, the city recorder's office announced Wednesday.
Michael Iverson, a candidate in District 4, failed to submit his pre-primary campaign finance report on time, assistant city recorder Nicole Smedley said. The report was due Tuesday evening at 5 p.m.
Iverson, who was one of two candidates challenging incumbent Ana Valdemoros, told KSL that his disqualification was due to his own confusion about the reporting system. Iverson said he accurately declared that he had no contributions or expenditures in the most recent period, but failed to press a button online specifically for candidates with nothing to declare.
"I feel confident I could challenge (the disqualification) because everything I said was accurate and up to date," Iverson said. "But I don’t have the legal resources to fight it, so I’ll have to accept it."
Smedley said the recorder's office had not received any submissions from Iverson since the last finance report, which was due July 1. The report due on Tuesday covered the period between June 28 and Aug. 3.
"So there is a period in which we just don't know" what he was spending or receiving, Smedley said. "That wouldn’t be fair to the other primary candidates to not know if he’s spending or receiving any money."
Smedley said she has seen other candidates disqualified for the same reason in municipal elections in Cedar Hills and Riverdale, but couldn't recall any other disqualifications in recent elections in Salt Lake City.
Iverson said he doesn't know whether he'll run for office again in the future. For now, he said, he plans to "return to my activist roots and encourage the incumbent to move left on issues" such as police accountability, LGBTQ discrimination, and housing affordability.
Any votes cast for Iverson in the election will not be counted.
