Port Stephens deputy mayor Paul Le Mottee is seeking legal advice after the NSW Electoral Commission rejected his nomination for next month's council election.
Cr Le Mottee said he had inadvertently uploaded an unsigned version of a form with his online nomination.
"My solicitor and barrister are looking into it," he said on Friday.
The Raymond Terrace businessman's omission left just two groups to contest Thursday's west ward ballot draw, one led by Labor party member Peter Kafer and the other an official Labor ticket headed by Cr Giacomo Arnott.
Four ungrouped independents, one of whom is Cr Le Mottee's 18-year-old daughter, Danielle, are also on the west ward ballot paper.
Cr Le Mottee said he had submitted forms for himself and the two other candidates in his independent group on Tuesday night, before nominations closed at midday on Wednesday.
He said he had received an email after the deadline saying his personal nomination form had been rejected.
He was not "100 per cent certain" the missing signature was the reason his nomination had been rejected.
"I hadn't forgotten to sign the form or forgotten to date the form. None of that was the case," he said.
"The case appears to be that I inadvertently uploaded the unsigned version instead of the signed version."
The Electoral Commission has implemented a new online nomination system for this year's election.
The Newcastle Herald has spoken to other candidates who found the nomination system complicated.
Cr Le Mottee said "lots of" candidates around the state had been given the opportunity to rectify errors or omissions before the deadline while others, including himself, had not.
"They said, 'Bad luck. We processed as many as we could before midday. We didn't get to yours so bad luck, you're out.'
"You can't afford some people the opportunity to rectify errors and omissions and not others.
"At the very least, it's highly inequitable."
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