Ballot fraud is what happens when voters are lied to and deceived into signing petition sheets, and when petition gatherers use an array of tactics, such as forgery, to falsely qualify an initiative onto the ballot. Click here for our Signature Reform Guidelines.
Click here to watch about fraudulent signature
gathering practices and what you can do to help keep the system honest.
Using a hidden camera, the KETV NewsWatch 7 I-Team set out to find out what petition circulators are telling people. An unidentified petition-gatherer said she's paid $2 per signature and says, ""We're trying to prohibit discrimination based on people's race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin," to each person she approaches with the petition. What she doesn't say, unless asked, is that the objective is to end race- and gender-based affirmative action.
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Fraud Merchants
National Ballot Access
Reports from a number of states indicate that Ward Connerly's paid signature gatherer, Edee Baggett, is up to her old tricks. In a manner eerily similar to what was witnessed in Michigan during the 2006 cycle, complaints are already being filed alleging that voters have been tricked by National Ballot Access into signing Connerly's so-called "civil rights initiative."
Fraud Merchants
National Voter Outreach
With rampant cases of fraud and forgery throughout the years leading to investigations, lawsuits and disqualifications, this firm has been a leader in cultivating deceptive signature gathering practices.
Fraud Merchants
Howie Rich
Howie Rich's 2006 effort to put his three-headed monster-Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), pay-or-waive schemes, and judicial attacks-on the ballot was anything but pretty.
Fraud Merchants
Paul Jacob
In 2007 a multi-county grand jury in Oklahoma indicted Jacob and two others for their involvement in the 2005 petition drive to put the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) initiative on the ballot.
Fraud Merchants
Ward Connerly
Ward Connerly, who's leading the charge to eliminate affirmative action programs, has allegedly been paid millions of dollars by lucrative contracting firms who stand to benefit directly from these civil rights rollbacks.
Fraud Merchants
JSM Inc.
JSM Inc, a signature gathering firm based in Florida, used deception and forgery in multiple states to qualify Ralph Nader for the ballot in 2004, and is frequently hired as a subcontractor by Arno Political Consultants and National Voter Outreach.