Boston City Council ballot drawing listed Kendra Lara as Kendra Hicks

A few eyebrows were raised when the Boston Election Department listed City Councilor Kendra Lara as Kendra Hicks at a lottery drawing that determined what order candidates will appear on the preliminary ballot.

The drawing was held Aug. 7, less than a week after questions about Lara’s name change were raised at a Boston Ballot Law Commission hearing, where a residency challenge against the councilor was considered and ultimately dismissed.

Sabino Piemonte, the city’s head assistant registrar of voters, said the discrepancy was just a mistake on his part that was quickly corrected. The incumbent’s name is listed as Kendra Lara on the ballot for the Sept. 12 preliminary election, he told the Herald Wednesday.

“That was a typo when I was typing it up when we were doing the drawing,” Piemonte said. “There’s a previous file that we use on that, and unfortunately, I forgot to change her name to Lara. She made all the proper documentation and changes here with our office.”

A screenshot provided to the Herald lists Lara in the top spot on the ballot for the three District 6 candidates, but as “Kendra Rosalie Hicks,” the name she went by when she first ran for the City Council two years ago.

Lara said at this month’s residency hearing that she went through an ugly divorce, which ended in part with her ex-husband barring her from using his last name, Hicks. She now goes by her maiden name, Lara, in her capacity as a city councilor, she said at the time.

“The way it works is the way you’re registered is how you appear on the ballot,” Piemonte said, explaining that the councilor changed her last name from Hicks to Lara on her state voter registration form in February or March.

“So she came in here and signed on the pains and penalties of perjury that that’s her name and that’s how she registered,” he said.

This month’s lottery drawing placed Lara’s challengers, Benjamin Weber and William King, second and third on the preliminary ballot, respectively.