ONE PETITION CIRCULATOR BEING PROBED
A case of possible election fraud is being investigated by the Platte County Sheriff’s Department.
The investigation was requested by the Platte County Board of Elections and is focused on one circulator of a petition. The suspicious action came as multiple petitioners gathered signatures of registered voters to place a quarter cent sales tax on the November ballot to establish a Children’s Services Fund Board in Platte County.
The board of elections says 941 pages of petitioned names were presented to them for verification. During the review of signatures, “it became apparent that those pages circulated by (suspect’s name redacted) appeared to have a higher than usual rate of wrong signatures (signatures not matching voter signatures in our office), invalid/non-existent residential addresses, deceased voters and other issues” the board of elections says in a written document submitted to the sheriff’s department requesting an investigation by law enforcement.
“We ask that there be further investigation of the circulator (name redacted) and specifically of the signatures on the petition pages noted in the attached Excel spreadsheet,” the board of elections continued.
Major Erik Holland told The Landmark on Tuesday that the matter is still being investigated by the sheriff’s department.
Sheriff’s officials say the board of elections’ review had discovered that “approximately 150 signatures consisted of individuals with incorrect spelling of their names, signatures that did not match on file voter signatures, were not a resident of the county of Platte, and some signatures were of individuals who were deceased.”
The number of suspicious signatures under investigation in the law enforcement probe is not enough to have mattered in placing the question on the ballot. Petitioners had gathered 8,400 signatures and submitted them for verification. The board of elections says it approved 5,366 of those signatures, more than meeting the threshold for success, which was 4,571.
In order to meet the threshold, the petition required signatures from eight percent of the qualified voters of the county determined on the basis of the number of votes cast for governor in the county at the last gubernatorial election. There were 57,131 votes cast for governor in Platte County in 2020.
Platte County voters will decide the quarter cent children’s sales tax question at the Nov. 5 election. A simple majority is needed for passage.
The matter is being investigated as a potential class one election offense.
According to Missouri state statute 115.631, class one election offenses “are deemed felonies connected with the exercise of the right of suffrage. Conviction for any of these offenses shall be punished by imprisonment of not more than five years or by a fine of not less than $2,500 but not more than $10,000 or by both such imprisonment and fine.”
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