UPDATE #3: The quote of the day goes to attorney Mark Grueskin, from this Denver Post story:
He rejected the Keyser camp’s assertion about the lawsuit’s motive. “If I had to defend forgery and fraud, I would probably try to deflect the issue to anything else, too,” he said.
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UPDATE #2: The Aurora Sentinel’s Chris Harrop:
The lawsuit — brought by Marcy Cochran, Jonathan Royce and Michael Cerbo and filed in Denver District County Court — alleges that at least 60 signatures collected for Keyser in the 1st Congressional District that were accepted as valid by Williams’ office appear to be forged…
Additionally, the lawsuit argues that because petition circulator Maureen Moss — who is accused of forging signatures on petitions for Keyser — “falsely swore” that each signature was from the person it purported to be, all 178 accepted signatures collected by Moss should be ruled invalid. If the court were to invalidate those signatures, Keyser’s total signatures in the 1st Congressional District would fall to 1,342, also below the legal threshold for sufficiency.
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UPDATE: Plaintiffs have a new list of sixty alleged forged signatures for Jon Keyser, dramatically increasing the number of signatures in question and mathematically calling into question Keyser’s qualification for the ballot. Because ballots for the June 28th Primary are already being prepared, Keyser can’t technically be removed from the ballot; however, a judge could still rule that any votes Keyser receives should not be counted.
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Big news in the Jon Keyser petition fraud controversy breaking now via multiple sources:
BREAKING: #Denver7 reports on #cosen forged signatures repeatedly mentioned in lawsuit vs @ColoSecofState abt @Jon_Keyser being on ballot.
— Marshall Zelinger (@7Marshall) May 27, 2016
Just In: More #cosen drama as lawyer files suit over @Jon_Keyser petitions. Exibit D is brutal #copolitics pic.twitter.com/TkTeusax14
— Joe St. George (@JoeStGeorge) May 27, 2016
We were forwarded the court filing, read it here. The summary reads:
In the implementation of a democracy, there may be no more patently offensive concept than fraud in the election process. Where election officials are not empowered to detect fraud or are simply overwhelmed and cannot do so, it becomes incumbent upon the courts to provide a forum to address such fraud and protect the electoral process. This is as true in the petition process as it is for any other aspect of an election. “If we do not hold in this way, we shall be compelled to say that, if a petition with a sufficient number of names on its face valid should be laid before the secretary of state, it could not be successfully attacked, even though every name were forged and every affidavit attached to it were false.” Elkins v. Milliken, 249 P. 655, 657 (Colo. 1926) (invoking powers as a court of equity).
Not every name has been forged on the petitions that are the subject matter of this litigation, and not every affidavit attached to them is false. But so many forged signatures and false affidavits were filed with and accepted by the Secretary of State to result in an unwarranted placement of Jon Keyser on the primary ballot for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. Additionally, the Secretary’s failure to issue a Statement of Sufficiency as to the Keyser petitions frustrates the ability of any eligible elector to challenge Keyser’s petitions.
As a result, this action seeks to ensure votes will not be counted for one candidate whose placement on the ballot is a function of fraud in the petitioning process. Alternatively, this action seeks an order that the Secretary issue a Statement of Sufficiency as required by statute.
Never a dull moment in this insane Senate race, dear readers.
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Who are Cochran, Royce, and Cerbo…. the plaintiffs?
Well, it's hard to be sure, but ProgressNow's lawyer, Cerbo perhaps the former head of the AFL-CIO, Royce is possibly a honcho in the CEA, and Cochran may be a normal who works at the Dept of Ed.
Cerbo was my state rep. in HD2 a few years back.
Just three average Coloradans . . .
. . . who have it out for Moderatus ???
Mike Cerbo is a former state representative and now a union leader.
Voter fraud? Nothing to see here. Now back to making sure little old ladies who've been voting all their lives have to jump through hoops to get picture ID even though there's no evidence of any in person voter fraud.
It really is funny that almost every time there's actual election fraud happening in this state nowadays, it's being done by Republicans
It's about time someone filed a lawsuit.
As I recall the last two or three very rare instances over years did involve Rs, all to do with mail in, I believe, and were caught before being counted toward any election result. So no successful voter fraud, just a tiny number of failed attempts by…. wait for it….. well you know the rest.
There have been numerous recounts over the years — some that actually changed the election result.
We should be looking at better counting of votes cast, not nonexistent voter fraud. But, that assumes the chief concern is about fair elections. My bad.
Tell me again why Ds want Keyser off the ballot. He's the best thing going for us in Colorado since marijuana was legalized.
You'd have to ask Moderatus. It has something to do with Alan Franklin's hair, I believe, or Maureen Moss' super-secret PNC decoder ring.
Oh, I'm sure it's because of how Keyser is "taking the bark off Michael Bennet" and how the Dems are terrified that Keyser will win the GOP primary then proceed to pin that Bronze Star to his mighty chest and throttle Bennet within an inch of his miserable socialist life in the general election.
If you don't believe me, just ask Jonny Boy. He'll tell ya all about it. 🙂
We don't. We just like watching Rs squirm.
Wonder how (and when) Mr. Williams will respond.
Seems on the face of it pretty clear that the office never has gotten around to issuing a needed Statement of Sufficiency. Both Keyser and Williams have some 'splaining to do.
You know, I'd almost completely stopped dwelling on the fact that we could have had Joe Neguse as our SoS instead of doughy, vacuous empty suit Wayne Williams.
Then all this petition buffoonery happened, and now it's like election night 2014 all over again.
It's times like these that the conspiracy part of my brain kicks in.
I was off the mind that Williams really didn't do anything wrong, but with all these fuck ups in signature verification, it has me thinking that he knew about the fraud that was happening, but then concocted the initial petition rejection as a way to soften the embarrassment for Keyser (an up-and-comer in the party) and let him save face. But Keyser, being the neophyte that he is, stormed ahead anyway with the court order to get back on the ballot. Now he's in this mess.
I think you're right. Unlike the whole "Maureen was funded by Soros" theory, yours actually makes sense. I for one am sick and tired of Keyser's crap. I suppose that the two people in the lawsuit that are Repubs are being paid by Michael "Mr.Big" Bennet? What is he gaining at this point by staying in this race? It's gone from a controversy to total and utter failure and embarrassment. I guess being a national laughingstock a few weeks ago wasn't enough bad publicity for him. To top it off, his spokesman looks like a real moron by continuing to spew the whole "Bennet is terrified of Keyser" mantra. I’m glad the SoS is getting sued. The lack of responsibility for election integrity displayed by that office of buck passers is unacceptable.
Also in need of ‘splainin’ is former journalist, now Williams' hack, Lynn Bartels.
Even though she was always a GOP fan girl she did some decent work. Pathetic that she's reduced to being a hack for, putting the kindest face on it, a mediocrity.
It's what she does best, BC.