BUFFALO, N.Y. — Five candidates submitted designating petitions to get on the ballot for three Buffalo City Court positions this year.

The Erie County Board of Elections validated all of the candidates had a sufficient amount of signatures, but Friday a state Supreme Court Justice kicked attorney Joel Moore off the ballot.

"He did nothing wrong and the notion that his candidacy should suffer because of this is simply wrong," Moore's attorney Frank Housh said.

Housh said the case centered around three specific situations in which the candidate signed paperwork indicating he witnessed a signature the court ruled he did not witness. He says those signatories were called to testify under subpoena.

"In one instance, the witness signed the name of her mother who asked her to sign the name for her because she was suffering from a heart condition and couldn't get up from her chair,” said Housh.

In another scenario, a wife says she signed her husband's name to the petition. According to court documents, she said Moore did not witness her sign the petition either.

The judge said there was clear and convincing evidence the candidate falsely attested to witnessing the signatures.

"These are very common things that happen in a petition," Moore said. "The petitioning process always includes people who sign for other people. The appropriate remedy if you sign for someone else is for that signature to be struck."

Housh says Moore collected hundreds more signatures than necessary to get on the ballot. In the decision though, the judge cited law that an entire designating petition may be invalidated if a candidate has knowledge or participated in fraud.

Even though the signatures were challenged on the basis of fraud, Housh argued the judge never specifically said Moore attempted to defraud anyone. He said the opposing attorneys also said on the record there was no evidence of fraud.

"The reason we respectively disagree with Judge Walker's decision is he found no fraud," he said. “He didn't say that anybody was acting fraudulently, which is required in order to dismiss the designating petition, but he did anyway."

Housh on Monday submitted an appeal to attempt to get Moore back on the ballot. Spectrum News was not able to reach the attorney for Howard Grynspan, who brought the petition against Moore.