Cleveland Heights Mayor Kahlil Seren Falls 154 Verified Signatures Short in Bid to Make Ballot for November Election

Cleveland Heights Mayor Kahlil Seren at a council meeting in May. Seren fell short 154 verified signatures the Board of Elections needed to put him on the primary ballot in September. Credit: Mark Oprea

Cleveland Heights Mayor Kahlil Seren is not heading toward the ballot box in September.

That’s according to the official report from the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, which reported on Monday that Seren, who’s been mired in a series of scandals since March, collected 39 fewer valid signatures than he needed to enter the election.

Seren submitted just 303 valid signatures, a Petition Statistics Report sent to Scene showed, out of the total 457 that he collected by the deadline last Wednesday.

That report shows that 47 of those included were linked duplicates, 34 were from unregistered voters, 14 weren’t genuine signatures, 25 were from mismatched address and 22 were blank lines.

The news means that the Cleveland Heights mayor’s first term will conclude this November. Or in September—if a recall campaign succeeds in verifying enough valid signatures in their effort to oust Seren as soon as legally possible.

Since at least March, Seren and his wife, Natalie McDaniel, have been the subject of a handful of controversies at Cleveland Heights City Hall, from allegations of a hostile work environment to outbursts of anti-semitism and allegations of spying on the Law Department.

Seren has denied all accusations and most recently framed the bad headlines as a “political lynching,” as he wrote in a letter to Heights residents on Monday, days before his signature count would fall short.

“All of this is a distraction rooted in outdated, hateful tropes that are carefully framed to mislead,” Seren wrote in his letter. “It is noise meant to divide and derail us.”

“But I am here to serve, to make our city better and to improve the lives of everyone in Cleveland Heights,” he added. “That mission has not changed and I will not be prevented from moving our city forward.”

Five other candidates will be vying for the seat soon to be vacated by Seren, which will begin with a primary election on September 9.