(Updated with SEEC comment) Were these two signatures written by the same hand?
Matt Smith reckoned “yes.” He asked the state to investigate “flagrant and fraudulent abuse” of democracy.
Citing 40 allegedly fishy signatures, Smith filed a complaint last week with the State Elections Enforcement Commission. The complaint cites the campaign of Ward 8 Democratic co-chairs Chris Randall and Carmen Rodriguez, who are seeking reelection Tuesday to another two-year term.
Randall flatly denied the allegations.
Smith is running the campaign for the opposition ticket. He’s helping two political newcomers, Lisa Siedlarz and Karri Brady, try to unseat the incumbents. His complaint intensifies a race that has drawn citywide attention because of its impact on a state representative race.
The complaint centers on the signatures Randall and Rodriguez collected to get on the ballot for Tuesday’s election. To get on the ballot, candidates had to submit a petition signed by 5 percent of the electorate in their ward, according to state law. In Ward 8, that meant collecting 88 signatures from a list of 1,758 registered Democrats. Randall and Rodriguez submitted 120 signatures to the Registrar of Voter’s Office on Jan. 14, 119 of which were accepted and validated.
Smith looked at the opposing campaign’s signatures and noticed something fishy, he said: He saw strings of two, three or four signatures that appeared to be written by the same person. He filed a complaint Feb. 22 with the State Elections Enforcement Commission, asking for investigators to review the signatures.
“It is quite obvious, even to a casual observer[,] that many of these signatures were signed by the same people,” Smith wrote.
“This is disturbing, as it calls into question the very foundation of our democracy that insists on free and fair elections. I kindly ask this commission to review these documents and investigate this flagrant and fraudulent abuse of our democratic system.”
Smith identified about 40 signatures as being fishy, he said. A few examples appear in the text boxes in this story.
Click here to read Smith’s complaint. Click here to view the signatures and decide for yourself. Comment below with your opinion.
Reached Sunday, Randall (pictured) said he collected most of the signatures himself. He insisted his campaign had done nothing wrong.
“I understand how some of the signatures might be appear to have been signed by the same person, but they were not,” Randall wrote in an email. “We did not illegally or unethically obtain any of the 119 signatures that were submitted, accepted and certified.”
Randall’s campaign manager, civil rights attorney Mike Jefferson, said he has worked on campaigns with Randall since 2003 and they have never had a complaint filed against them before. He questioned the timing of the complaint. He asked why the issue was not raised when the signatures were certified in mid-January, instead of right before the election.
Smith said he raised the issue at this time because he recently learned that the opposing campaign had taken out an unusually high number of absentee ballots. Smith checked the names on the absentee ballots. He said he discovered that 31 of them corresponded to people who had signed with fishy signatures.
Randall said he had not heard about the complaint before the Independent contacted him, and he questioned whether the SEEC would find enough merit in the allegations to investigate.
SEEC spokeswoman Nancy Nicolescu said Tuesday her office reviewed the complaint and decided to investigate further. The complaint alleges facts, which if proven true, would constitute a violation of state election or campaign finance laws, she said. The SEEC docketed the complaint and assigned it to an investigator, she said.
The race in Ward 8 is being closely watched by political insiders because of its impact the 96th District state congressional race. New Haven State Rep. Cam Staples is giving up that seat as he seeks the Democratic nomination for attorney general.
The winners of Tuesday’s co-chair contest will elect delegates to send to a mini-convention, where Hamden and New Haven Democrats will nominate a candidate for the 96th District seat. The party nomination gives weight to a candidate going into the primary.
Two men, East Rock Alderman Roland Lemar and Hamden lawyer Mike D’Agostino, have announced their candidacy. Ward 8 Alderman Mike Smart and East Rock’s Debra Hauser both told the Independent they’re considering running, too.
This list is very troubling. A lot of people at the same addresses with the same handwriting. . . Hopefully the Elections Commission will knock on some doors. God knows the City Registrar and Town Clerk's office will do nothing.
Dollars to donuts says that all of these "voters" end up voting absentee. NHI should stay on top of it.
Only in New Haven can 120 people even if they are not people swing an election.