Campaigning for Marathon City Council candidates has led three council members to be disqualified from their roles on the city's Canvassing Board.</p><p>One of their replacements was also disqualified for the same reason.</p><p>Council members Pete Worthington, Dick Ramsay and Ginger Snead were disqualified Monday when City Attorney John Herin received an informal written opinion from the state Division of Elections that says their campaigning couldn't allow them to serve.</p><p>That day -- one day before council elections -- Chief Circuit Court Judge Luis Garcia appointed local attorneys Richard Warner and Bill Heffernan, and financial analyst Peter Chapman.</p><p>But Chapman was off the Canvassing Board by Tuesday because he attended a campaign kickoff party for incumbent Mayor Mike Cinque. Stanley Switlik Elementary School Principal Barbara Wright replaced him.</p><p>Garcia sought advice on whom to appoint from the Supervisor of Elections Office and assorted Marathon community members during a Monday search that "took a lot of phone calls."</p><p>"The criteria were [that they be] residents of the city of Marathon, individuals not involved in any of the campaigns, and individuals I thought would be trustworthy and had the time to give up and sacrifice. Serving on this board is going to be time-consuming," Garcia said.</p><p>The Canvassing Board is responsible for tallying absentee ballots and decides whether to accept challenged or provisional ballots. It's made up of City Council members not up for re-election in Marathon in any particular year.</p><p>Sunday, Herin sent an inquiry to the Division of Elections asking whether an opinion out of Broward County regarding Canvassing Board members being "active participants" in campaigns applies to Marathon. It apparently does because Marathon's city charter contains no provisions for replacing or disqualifying Canvassing Board members.</p><p>"Absent an applicable special act, charter, or ordinance provision, the election code ... applies to the conduct of a municipality's election," wrote Gary Holland, Division of Elections counsel.</p><p>On Oct. 15, Division of Elections Director Donald Palmer sent a letter to Broward County Canvassing Board Chairwoman Sharon Zeller. In it, Palmer lays out the definition of active participation.</p><p>"An 'active participant' means that a canvassing board member undertakes an effort intentionally to demonstrate or generate public support of a candidate beyond merely making a campaign contribution," he wrote.</p><p>That includes being a member of an election or re-election committee, public endorsement, holding campaign signs or wearing campaign T-shirts, or other public displays of support for candidates.</p><p>Ramsay told the <i>Keynoter</i> he was unaware his actions might lead to being disqualified from the board.</p><p>"I basically failed to qualify because I felt my wife and I had a right to have a bumper sticker and the other is because I went to campaign parties," he said. "I'm terribly disappointed; I really wanted sit there and count votes."</p><p>Worthington also said he didn't believe his actions violated Canvassing Board rules.</p><p>"The law actually applies to county canvassing boards. The municipalities have a city charter that have a method for disqualifying candidates on municipal boards, but ours doesn't have that in the charter," Worthington said.