PROVIDENCE — State Secretary of State Ralph A. Mollis has announced the ballot for the city’s District 51 House of Representatives seat.

Six candidates are vying for the House seat formerly held by State Sen. Roger Picard before his election to the late Roger R. Badeau’s Dist. 20 Senate seat. The House seat has been vacant since Picard’s victory in a special Senate election earlier this year.
The candidates for House District 51 are Joseph D. Barroso, 57, of 224 Marshall Road, Christopher Fierro, 28, of 137 Ridge St., David Lahousse, 47, of 106 Ridge St., Bamby L. Mohamed, 47 of 394 Congress St.,  Robert D. Phillips,  51, of 425 Dunlap St., and Richard A. Picard, 61, of 734 Bound Road, brother of the senator. All are running as Democrats, according to Mollis.
Friday was the deadline to certify the ballot for the seat’s Sept. 9 primary election and Mollis informed all six candidates they had collected the required signatures from 50 eligible district voters to qualify for the ballot.
District 51 covers parts of Woonsocket and Cumberland, Mollis noted. To set the order of the candidates’ appearance on the ballot, Mollis said he borrowed a machine from the R.I. Lottery to conduct a drawing at State House Friday afternoon.
Richard Picard was selected as the first to appear followed by Bamby Mohamed, Christopher Fierro, Robert Phillips, David Lahousse, and Joseph Barroso, Mollis said.
 “This is a very exciting time for American and Rhode Island politics,” Mollis said of the District 51 contest. “Voters are really tuning in this year as evidenced by the record turnout in our presidential primary and the extraordinary number of candidates who are seeking office,” he added.
More that 2,800 candidates filed to run for offices up for election statewide in November while seeking  seats ranging from School Committee to U.S. Senate, according to Mollis. The candidates collected signatures from tens of thousands of eligible voters which had to be certified by the Secretary of State.
Badeau, a popular Woonsocket legislator, died in office on Jan. 25 following a battle with cancer. He had held his Senate seat for 23 years. Roger Picard is running unopposed for re-election to the Senate in November.