EAST PROVIDENCE — The Democratic City Committee has appealed two of last week’s Canvassing Authority decisions with the state Board of Elections.

The committee’s chairman, Nuno A. Branco, filed two complaints last month questioning the validity of affidavits filed by Shannon Barbosa and Brian G. Coogan, who are candidates running for Ward 2 School Committee and Ward 2 City Council, respectively. The sworn statements said every resident who signed their nomination papers were done in the candidate’s “presence.”

Before last week’s hearings, however, Coogan told The Journal that others helped him collect signatures. He also had one, Victor Silva, waiting on the phone to talk to a reporter. Silva and Coogan, a former state representative, reiterated those facts in testimony they gave last week. Coogan also said a canvassing office clerk said she was not going to “nit-pick” the affidavits and simply told him to make sure they were all notarized and signed. The local authority couldn’t come to a consensus and the deadlock caused Branco’s complaint to be thrown out.

In her hearing, Barbosa, a newcomer vying for political office, testified she was personally responsible for collecting signatures for 7 of the 15 sets of nomination papers she filed with the canvassing office. She said she supervised the collection of signatures for the other sets. Barbosa also said she wasn’t given clear instructions regarding the affidavits and didn’t read the declarations when she signed them in front of a notary.

In a 2-to-1 vote last Tuesday, the local authority dismissed Branco’s complaint. Board members Thomas Riley and Peter Barilla Sr., who voted for the dismissal, believed Barbosa’s faults were partly because of the erroneous information she received from the canvassing office.

“They [the authority] didn’t follow the law,” said Frederic A. Marzilli, the lawyer representing Branco and the city committee. “It’s not like they have leeway. They don’t. This process has to have integrity.”

Robert Kando, the executive director of the state Board of Elections, said he received Branco’s appeal on July 31. The board is planning to hear the matter on Wednesday at 2 p.m. in its Branch Avenue office, in Providence.

The appeal hearings “take place as if nothing happened,” Kando explained. “So the [previous decision by the local board] doesn’t matter. We start anew.”

Regardless, Marzilli plans to present the same arguments. He said two previous Rhode Island Supreme Court rulings (particularly one in 1997) state the election law regarding nomination papers and affidavits is a “substantive statute” that must be followed to the letter rather than just in the spirit of the regulation.

“The fact that the staff in the canvassing office gave them the wrong information doesn‘t help them,” Marzilli said. He also said Coogan “ran five times before” and testified he was “familiar with the process.”

Coogan’s lawyers argued last week that Coogan did witness the collection of more than 300 of the signatures received and therefore, even if the local board disqualified the others, Coogan would have enough signatures (200 valid signatures are required) to continue running for office. In addition to it being moot, Coogan’s lawyers — Kevin J. Bristow and former House Speaker John B. Harwood — said Marzilli did not meet the burden of proof necessary to validate Branco’s complaint.

Coogan declined to comment yesterday. His lawyers did not return The Journal’s call.

Barbosa, who didn’t have a lawyer, argued she was an honest person who didn’t intentionally try to deceive anyone. She said she relied on the advice of city staff rather than completely reading the candidate’s guidebook that she, and everyone else, is given when they decided to run for office.

“I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do,” Barbosa said yesterday when she was asked if she would hire a lawyer. “I’m starting college. I have to work. I have children. I don’t want to quit, but … it seems like he [Branco] is out to get me. I don’t know what his problem is. This is such a headache. I did this [ran for office] for all the right reasons and that’s the sad part about all of this.”

apina@projo.com