Candidates Petitions Scrutinized for Legitimacy

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CHICAGO -Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says federal authorities should join state investigators into checking claims that nominating petitions for mayor were improperly notarized.

He told reporters recently that there should be federal and state investigations.

The Chicago Sun-Times has reported that state officials are investigating signatures on several ballots appearing on candidates' petitions, including state Sen. James Meeks and former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun.

Daley announced earlier this year that he won't seek re-election.

Sen. James Meeks campaign spokesperson, Bryan Zises, responded to the controversy through e-mail. In the last week of the petition process, our campaign contracted with two coordinators to help circulate petitions to supplement our volunteer efforts, CL Sparks and Tyronne Tucker. They provided notarized signatures and we paid them. That's the extent of our campaigns involvement in this story. Any suggestion to the contrary is purely sensational, conspiracy theories and innuendo.

Mayoral candidate Patricia Van Pelt Watkins, one of the candidates in question for allegedly having improper signatures on her nominating petitions responded to the scandal in a recent news release. We need a complete investigation why these signatures are fraudulent, because this is Chicago, and theres a long history of political mischief and dirty tricks and all sorts of insidious stunts to keep candidates off the ballot and thats the very culture this campaign wants to clean up, Van Pelt-Watkins said.

The Citizen reached out to Brauns campaign for comment but did not receive a response by press time.

According to Elizabeth Kaufman, spokesperson for the Secretary of States office, the Secretary of State police are investigating the alleged forgeries and currently working with the Cook County States Attorneys office. If any criminal charges are found with impersonating a notary, Each signature would be a misdemeanor offense of up to $1,000 and up to a year in jail. Each signature can be a count, Kaufman told the Citizen. The Secretary of States office regulates notaries in the state of Illinois.

In all, 20 mayoral hopefuls have filed nominating papers to be on the ballot, but the list is likely to be shorter by Election Day because nearly a dozen of them face petition challenges.

Additionally, former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is facing questions about his residency.

According to Jim Allen, spokesperson for the Chicago Board of Elections, a decision was not reached in Mondays hearing regarding challenges to Emanuels residency. The hearing officer heard from all of the lead attorneys on both sides, as well as the other parties who have filed objections, stated Allen in an e-mail to the Citizen. Allen added that a witness list is being developed for subpoenas and stipulations which should be entered by the end of the week. As a result, a testimony and introduction of other evidence may begin Mon., Dec. 13.

Allen was also asked about the alleged forging on nominating petitions for Meeks, Braun and Watkins and stated, We have 426 objections that were filed. We cannot comment on any pending cases; however, we can say that if and when any evidence of any fraud emerges, we will forward that to the State's Attorney's Office or other investigative bodies.

Additionally, over 400 challenges were filed to candidates in the Feb. elections. When the Citizen asked Allen to provide names of aldermen facing this issue, he declined to comment due to pending litigation.

Wires, Thelma Sardin

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