WESTBROOK – A School Committee candidate who is running on the Democratic ticket is actually registered as a Republican.

Martha Henderson, who is competing for the Ward 3 seat against incumbent Republican Ed Symbol, has been registered as a Republican since 1984, according to her voter registration card and the city’s computerized voter registry. But Henderson says she’s never been a Republican and doesn’t know why she’d be registered as one.

“I always thought of myself as a Democrat and thought I was registered as a Democrat,” Henderson said Friday.

It’s still undetermined whether Henderson will be able to run. The city’s attorney and the secretary of state have both confirmed that Henderson is a registered Republican. At a meeting Monday night, the city’s Municipal Officers appointed a voter appeals board that would decide whether Henderson can stay on the ballot as a Democrat. The board could make a decision as early as Tuesday night.

This is the second problem to surface in recent weeks regarding a candidate running for election in Westbrook. Last month, the city discovered that Councilor Lyle Cramer, who was running for re-election to his seat in Ward 3, actually lives in Ward 4. He was disqualified from running in the November election.

Henderson’s affiliation with the Republican Party was discovered last week by her opponent, Symbol, as he was looking through the list of registered voters in Ward 3, before mailing out postcards for his campaign.

After examining her voter registration card, Henderson said it appears a different pen was used to circle her party affiliation than was used to fill out the rest of the information on the card. Because she registered at the same time as her son – a Republican – she believes she may have forgotten to circle her affiliation and that someone in the clerk’s office did it after the fact, assuming she was a Republican, as well.

“I’m not accusing anyone, but something happened,” she said.

City Clerk Lynda Adams said, with other candidates, she confirmed their affiliation in the registry at the city’s party caucuses. Though Henderson was nominated to run for the seat at the Democratic caucus last month, she wasn’t present for it, Adams said. A few weeks later, Henderson tried to withdraw her name from the ballot, but had missed the state’s Sept. 18 deadline to do so by one business day.

Henderson said she tried to withdraw because she hadn’t realized how much it cost to run a campaign, and with her husband having recently undergone hip surgery, she didn’t think she could afford it.

“It had nothing to do with not wanting to run,” she said.

The appeals board consists of three members, Bob Morrill, nominated by the Republican City Committee; Ken Lefenbvre, nominated by the Democratic City Committee, and John Eddy, an independent nominated by the city clerk.

Brendan Rielly, who is acting as chairman for the Democratic City Committee, said he didn’t believe it would be appropriate to comment on the situation while it’s being taken up by an appeals board.

“It seems like a bit of an unfortunate mess,” said Republican City Committee Chairwoman Martha Day. She said she hopes the issue will be resolved this week.

Adams said that the board is planning to hold a hearing Tuesday and could make a decision that night. If the board rules against Henderson, she can appeal that decision to Cumberland County Superior Court. Henderson said she would likely not pursue further appeals, because of the cost.

According to Adams, there have been a number of discrepancies found between the voter registration cards and the computerized registry, including one with Henderson’s husband Bruce.

There are two voter registration cards for Bruce Henderson. One shows he registered as a Republican in 1984, and another shows that, in 2007, he removed his party affiliation. But in the computer system, he’s still registered as a Republican, not an independent.

In addition, Adams said, there are about 300 voter registration cards missing for people who are registered voters in the computer system.

The issues, Adams said, have come up as the clerk’s office has been attempting to clean up its system and check to see if some of the city’s inactive voters still want to be registered in Westbrook.

This is the first time Adams, who was elected as clerk in 2007, has run a municipal election. She replaced Barbara Hawkes, who had been in the position for 14 years.

“It’s unfortunate that things like this come up during election time,” when the clerk’s office is already very busy, Adams said Friday.

“I think the most important thing is that things are straightened out so they don’t happen again,” she said.

Henderson said she’s glad that Symbol discovered the discrepancy, because she would like to run an honest campaign.

“I’m not upset with him at all. I just want to get it straightened out,” she said.

But still, she’s sure there must have been a mistake made somewhere along the way.

“Republicans are very nice, too,” she said. “I’m just not one of them.”

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