(Promoted by Colorado Pols)
POLS UPDATE #4: The Denver Post’s John Frank:
The signature of one voter, Pam Niemczyk of Littleton, raised particular questions because it appeared on two petitions in different handwriting.
Niemczyk said she remembers signing a petition for Graham outside a local grocery store but not Keyser.
“I have seen my signature for Jack Graham and I have seen my signature for Jon Keyser and I can definitely say the one for Jon Keyser is not my signature,” she said in an interview. “It’s forged.” [Pols emphasis]
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POLS UPDATE #3: Coincidentally, a former candidate for Denver city council was just sentenced today by the Denver District Attorney’s office for falsifying signatures on a petition for ballot access.
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POLS UPDATE #2: Marshall Zelinger at 7NEWS reports, bad news for Jon Keyser:
Pamela Niemczyk of Littleton told Denver7’s Marshall Zelinger on Tuesday that she had signed a petition for Jack Graham, another Republican U.S. Senate candidate. She said the signature on the Keyser petition was not hers, calling it a “fraud.” [Pols emphasis]
…The Keyser campaign issued a statement blasting U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, the Democratic incumbent whom he and other Republican candidates are vying to challenge in the November general election.
“Senator Michael Bennet’s liberal friends, ProgressNow Colorado, embarrassed his campaign yet again today with a flailing stunt that clearly telegraphs to the entire political world how scared Michael Bennet is to face Jon Keyser in November,” Keyser spokesman Matt Connelly said in the statement. “…The entire political world knows Jon Keyser will be on the ballot and we appreciate Progress Now’s invitation to highlight for conservatives across the country that Jon Keyser is Senator Bennet’s worst nightmare.”
Whether or not it was political stunt, Denver7 confirmed that the Littleton voter said someone forged her signature on the Keyser petition.
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POLS UPDATE: This could be about to get very serious for Jon Keyser, as 7NEWS’ Marshall Zelinger confirms apparent fraud in Keyser’s submitted petitions:
Voter whose name appears on two petitions as found by @ProgressNowCO confirms name on @Jon_Keyser petition NOT hers pic.twitter.com/PXJXvV4Xsd
— Marshall Zelinger (@7Marshall) May 3, 2016
Watch this space for updates, uh-oh…
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With time running out on a temporary injunction against the finalization of the 2016 Republican U.S. Senate primary ballot, ProgressNow Colorado, the state’s largest online progressive advocacy organization, called on the Colorado Secretary of State’s office to re-examine petition signatures submitted in the U.S. Senate race. This request comes after a cursory investigation of the Secretary of State’s own data revealed several invalid petition signatures that evidently slipped through the cracks, and at least one wrongly accepted duplicate signature that appears to be fraudulent.
“Our review of just a sample of Jon Keyser’s petitions in one congressional district has found enough uncaught invalid signatures to raise serious questions about whether Jon Keyser has in fact qualified for the Republican primary ballot,” said ProgressNow Colorado political director Alan Franklin. “The Secretary of State must immediately rescind their statement of sufficiency for Jon Keyser, and request an extension of the temporary injunction now in place to revisit errors and potential fraud in the signature validation process. ‘Close enough’ isn’t good enough for Colorado voters.”
After petition documents were made available for inspection by the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, a cursory review of Jon Keyser’s signatures in one congressional district found at least six invalid duplicate signatures that were not discarded in the Secretary of State’s signature validation process. The signatories appear in the accepted signature reports for both U.S. Senate candidates Jack Graham and Jon Keyser. Based on Keyser’s total validated petition signatures in one congressional district (CD-1), fourteen additional invalid signatures would put Keyser below the minimum number required to appear on the 2016 ballot.
At least one duplicate signature accepted for Keyser, a voter whose signature was also accepted for Jack Graham, appears to be fraudulent. A visual inspection of the signatures plainly shows the same name filled out in different handwriting. [1]
“Our brief look at the petitions for Jon Keyser has raised serious questions, and after he barely qualified for the ballot, every single signature matters,” said Franklin. “Our sample of petition signatures has revealed previously uncaught errors, as well as a potential for outright fraud, that could change everything in this race. Unless the Secretary of State takes the time to re-verify every petition signature, no one can have confidence in the Republican U.S. Senate primary ballot.”
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Oopsie! That's not substantial compliance
Double oopsie!
Might want to do a quick bit of handwriting analysis on those petitions. There might be some "commonalities."
I think that deliberate fraud is at least "substantial." But I gotta go with you on the compliance thing. Lord, these guys ooze sleaze.
So the dumpster fire that is Keyser's campaign has now turned into a dumpster bon-fire?
Keyser's campaign manager, Matt Connelly wrote on Keyser's website that “It’s embarrassing for Senator Michael Bennet that he is so terrified of facing Jon Keyser in November he needs his sleazy liberal friends to pull such an ill-fated stunt”. Terrified of what? What is this guy smoking? He's focusing on Bennet and he still has to beat at least Glenn and Graham? Instead of worrying about all the rest, why is he not telling us all why Keyser is qualified to run for the US Senate? And why is Lynn Bartels retweeting stuff from this high rent carnival barker, anyway?
It's pretty obvious that signature should not count for Keyser for the simple reason that Graham had it first. Why was it counted? How many more are there? The bottom line is what is going to be done about it, and who's going to do it?
GOP reps and staffers need to be required to show several forms of Legislator ID before they begin collecting signatures or opening their mouths.
Holy shit! Two ballot Keyser done fucked up this time.
Rounding error …
Wayne Williams’ fault …
Bureaucrats …
Obama …
Moddy should be by any moment now for a drive-by shilling to defend his fair-haired boy, Keyser.
1. Did Progress Now look at other candidates like they did Keyser?
2. Is there any evidence that Keyser's campaign knew about this? It's probably just a petition circulator who got greedy.
The answers to both questions is NO. This is a political stunt that Keyser doesn't even need to respond to. He's on the ballot and that's all that matters.
1. Obviously they did look at Graham, they had to to discover this fraud.
They will likely look at Blaha and Frazier assuming there is mootness and they somehow magically make the ballot.
2. Is there any evidence that Thaddeus McCotter forged signatures? Nope. And now he is an ex-Congressman for this exact same shit.
The truth is, this is a political stunt, they targeted Keyser because he was a Republican, just like they went through Graham. Which does nothing to change the law, the validity of signatures and the blatant fraud that occurred.
Isn't the mark of a leader that one is in charge of those that work under you?
Only if you believe in personal responsibility – never heard a Republican mention that before.
You nailed it Frank!
Right on time, too. I'm betting this development doesn't bode well for Blaha's and Frazier's chances of getting a let it slide decision.
Interesting that not only does the fraudulent signature look significantly different, but that the date on Keyser's petition is apparently 2 weeks earlier than Graham's. So there must have been some access to voter info and forethought done to perpetrate this fraud.
But it also seems they didn't quite read the address correctly. It appears to me they used Court instead of Circle, and Apt A instead of Apt H (easy to misinterpret).
I guess Keyser's defense will be "Well you didn't believe me the last time I claimed there was election fraud, so I just wanted to show you actual proof!"
Perhaps all of the dates on this petition were faked in addition to 6 allegedly forged signatures – all illegal and fraudulent. This gets worse and worse – bad for Keyser because he will likely be charged along with the petition carrier and the contractor for forgery and fraud. The Judge's past "sympathy" ruling may not preclude Mr. Keyser from being charged and dumped from the ballot. At the very least, it undermines Mr. Keyser's credibility. And more headaches for the Secretary of State and county clerks who would like to finalize the primary ballots for printing and posting. Ah, but they should have done a more thorough job of scrutinizing the petitions to prevent illegalities.
It'll be better if he wins the primary and is then arrested the following day…..
I really wonder what the chances are of someone getting charged for this. If no one is held accountable, that's basically saying it's ok to go ahead and find the rolls for a political party and fill in names if you come up a few short for getting on a petition. The Keyser apologists can say what they will about ProgressNow, but they've been calling him "Liar Keyser" for two months now and he keeps proving them right.
that's basically saying it's ok to go ahead and find the rolls for a political party and fill in names
You'll make Blue Cat homesick for Chicago.
I thought plagiarism was reserved for Scott McInnis.
I thought we were really losing something special when Eli left Denver for Politico. And we were.
But thank goodness we've got Marshall.