Donald J. Lucas walked door-to-door for a month to collect 1,100 signatures so he could appear on the 118th Assembly District ballot. The independent sold a retirement gift to himself, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, so he could invest an estimated $10,000 in the race.

He's not going to accept being dropped from the ballot on a technicality without a fight.

Mr. Lucas is considering hiring an attorney to challenge a ruling by the state Board of Elections, which invalidated his petition Friday after the candidate failed to file a complete certificate of acceptance on time. If that proves unaffordable, the Massena man is thinking about bringing the case to court himself or continuing the race as a write-in candidate.

"It's just unbelievable that because of a technicality, six months of work went down the drain," he said Saturday.

Mr. Lucas, like all other independent candidates, was required to accept his created party's nomination for office by filling out a certificate in front of a notary and having the document notarized. The Massena man said he misunderstood directions from the state board and initially filed a letter that was not notarized. When he learned of his error, he filed an addendum that was ruled too late by a three-commissioner panel Friday.

Mr. Lucas was angered by the state board's failure to tell him of the fatal flaw in his paperwork, although the agency isn't required to do that. He noted that all hopefuls who were tossed off their lines Friday by the state board were third-party candidates.

"If you're in one of the two major parties, they'll bend over backwards to help you," he said. "If you call as an independent, they tell you they're uncomfortable giving help."

Robert A. Brehm, state elections board spokesman, said Friday that Mr. Lucas had the same access as all other candidates to pertinent documents, including the certificate of acceptance, because they are all posted on the agency's Web site.

"I take the blame for it because I did not read further into the book," Mr. Lucas said. "I did not have committee people as the major parties do. They have people doing the legwork for them to make sure they have all their i's dotted and t's crossed."

He has until Wednesday to start a state Supreme Court case to challenge the panel's ruling. If Mr. Lucas is unsuccessful, the only two candidates who will appear on the ballot will be Republican Robert W. "Bobby" Cantwell III, Clayton, and Democrat Addie J. Russell, Theresa.