Nomination Petitions’ Validity Questioned

A Democratic candidate in the 67th Assembly District race, who party strategists allege was put on the ballot by Republicans to dilute the Democratic vote, possibly violated election law in the circulation of her nomination petitions.

State election law requires that the circulator of the nomination petitions--whether the candidate or someone else--sign the document and declare under penalty of perjury that he or she is a registered voter in the political district, according to the secretary of state’s office.

Candidate Laurie Campbell declared she was the circulator of the eight separate petition sheets that were submitted, with signatures from 43 registered Democrats. Interviews with 12 of these people, however, found that in every instance a man had brought the petition to them.

The unknown men circulating the petitions--they were described as in their 20s and mid-30s--had told these Democrats that their signatures would help get a Democrat on the ballot in the Nov. 28 election.

The secretary of state’s office declined to comment on the specific case but said that a violation could lead to prosecution of Campbell for perjury or perhaps invalidation of her candidacy.

“That would have to be ruled on by the courts following the filing of a complaint,” said spokeswoman Shirley Washington. No complaint has been filed, she said.

Democrats are considering filing a complaint.

Campbell has refused to comment on how her signatures were collected.

When filing nomination papers, a candidate for the Assembly must garner a minimum of 40 signatures from residents of the district who are members of the candidate’s own party.

In general, said Darren Chesin--a consultant to the Senate Elections Committee, which does nonpartisan analyses of legislation--the election code does not specifically address the question of penalties for a false affidavit or how it might affect the validity of the petitions or candidacy.

“Generally, as long as the folks who signed it are eligible voters, [the candidacy] would probably be OK,” he said. “Judges don’t like to disenfranchise voters if the circulator did something wrong.”

Chesin said that the purpose of having the circulator swear an affidavit is to ensure that “if you are trying to influence the outcome of an election, you should be one of the electorate.”

Democratic Party leaders, including candidate Linda Moulton Patterson, said that they believe Campbell is a candidate put up by Republicans.

“If you verify that a male circulated the petition,” said Tom Umberg, a former Assemblyman and a Democratic Party leader who has been critical of Campbell’s entry into the race, “then it would seem this violation of the law would be something the district attorney would be interested in investigating as soon as possible, because the election is upon us.”

The district attorney’s office said that it would review any written complaint and declined further comment.