EAST PROVIDENCE — School Committee candidate Brian Monteiro attended a family cookout recently, seeking signatures for his nomination papers. One family member was given permission to sign for several people at the cookout, Monteiro says. On the menu: grilled sardines.

Monteiro also said he had voters sign despite knowing they were not from his residential ward. They had to live there to count toward the 200 signatures that Monteiro needed to vie for the position.

He submitted a total of 285 signatures, 154 of which were certified by the canvassers office on Wednesday.

“I went out there and did the best I could,” Monteiro, of Leonard Avenue, said. “This was my first time running.”

Because he failed to accrue 200 valid signatures, Shannon L. Barbosa, also a newcomer, is the sole candidate for the Ward 2 School Committee seat. Incumbent Stephen DeCastro isn’t seeking another term.

Yet it’s not a shoo-in for Barbosa.

The city’s Canvassing Authority voted 2 to 1 last week to ask the state police to investigate whether signatures were fraudulently collected or forged on nomination papers for Barbosa and City Council candidate Brian Coogan. The end result, however, will not affect their eligibility because both had more than 200 valid signatures without counting the ones in question.

Additional complaints and challenges regarding Coogan, Barbosa and other local candidates have been filed since that vote. The authority will consider all of them at its meeting Monday night at 7 in City Hall.

Monteiro’s questionable collection of signatures is one of the issues to be discussed. Registered voters are supposed to print their name and address and then sign their signature on candidates’ nomination papers.

In a complaint Barbosa filed against Monteiro, she said the procedure wasn’t followed for 42 residents, the majority of which did not include their address. On one sheet, for example, Zachary Pereira, of 108 North County St., signed his name. The next five residents, all relatives of Pereira, didn’t write their address down. They used ditto marks instead to signify they live at the same house as Pereira.

It also appears as if one person signed for all six family members.

“They were at a cookout cooking sardines so they gave [Pereira] permission to sign for all of them,” Monteiro explained. “He got approval.”

He said he believed their permission was sufficient. Although he said he collected all the signatures himself, Monteiro couldn’t remember whether other residents signed for their family members. Yet one sheet appears to show the same handwriting for three family members living in the same house on Leonard Avenue and four family members from the same house on Grosvenor Avenue.

Monteiro, 24, also admitted he collected signatures from people outside of his ward. He said he knew they were ineligible after the fact, but didn’t cross them out because he “figures they would be thrown out” by Callahan. Monteiro also said he pointed those names out to Callahan when he submitted his nomination papers.

“If the state police have to investigate, fine,” Monteiro said. “I don’t believe I committed any fraud. I guess I just didn’t pay attention to detail.”

When asked if he took election procedures seriously, he said, “I believe in public service and I just thought I could do a good job [on the School Committee]. I take the Democratic process seriously. … Hindsight is always 20/20.”

apina@projo.com