Rest in peace, or politics? Rhode Island GOP primary hit by deceased signatures drama
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PROVIDENCE – After a last-minute plea for help by the chairman of the Rhode Island Republican Party, all of the GOP's big-name presidential candidates gathered the minimum number of signatures to get on the Rhode Island presidential primary ballot by Thursday's deadline, as President Joe Biden had done days earlier.
But that does not mean that any of them are guaranteed a place on the April 2 ballot. The signatures on the nominating papers for all the candidates have yet to be certified.
And concerns about potentially fraudulent signatures - including those of dead people - on the nominating petitions submitted on behalf of Republican Vivek Ramaswamy have been raised by elections officials in Warwick, Coventry, Hopkinton and Providence.
Reached by telephone in Iowa, Ramaswamy's communications director Tricia McLaughlin told The Journal that, after hearing about the deceased voter names, Ground Game LLC, the Missouri-based company the campaign hired to gather signatures in Rhode Island and three other states, conducted an internal investigation.
The investigaton found "an employee intentionally doing this."
"That person was promptly fired," she said, and the company has been working with Warwick police and will do so with any other law enforcement agency that might become involved on potential charges against this individual.
"It's obviously very unfortunate that this happened," she said.
Signatures submitted
President Joe Biden: 1,638
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: 1,560
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis: 2,196
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki R. Haley: 2,202
U.S. Rep. (Minnesota) Dean B. Phillips: 1,059
Vivek G. Ramaswamy: 1,273
Former President Donald J. Trump: 2,502
'Unusually high number of invalidated signatures'
The Boards of Canvassers in Cranston and Jamestown reported an "unusually high" number of invalidated signatures on petitions from the No Labels Rhode Island Party. (It is not clear whom the party, laying the groundwork for a third-party bid, is backing in Rhode Island.)
There is also time between now and Jan. 25 for the filing of objections to their nominating papers, which have come under close scrutiny since Coventry and Warwick became the proverbial canaries in a coal mine.
Both reported what a state Board of Elections spokesman described as an "unusually high number of invalidated signatures and instances of deceased voters submitted on behalf of presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy."
A Journal review of Ramaswamy's nominating petitions indicated the signatures were collected by people from Missouri, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and – in the case of one woman with a number of ineligible voters, including that of at least one "deceased" person – Ohio.
More towns reported signature problems Thursday.
In an email to the boards of canvassers in every city and town, Miguel Nunez, the state board's deputy director of elections, said signature problems, including deceased voters, had been detected in Cranston, Hopkinton and Jamestown. The Coventry Board of Canvassers flagged signatures on nomination papers submitted on Ramaswamy's behalf by Heidy Moore and Michael Michols, Nunez wrote. (Neither is registered to vote in Rhode Island, according to the secretary of state's office.)
"We have also been notified by the staff of the Warwick Board of Canvassers of several deceased voters on the nomination papers submitted on behalf of presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy ... [and] by the staff of the Cranston Board of Canvassers that they have found names of several deceased voters on petitions from the No Labels Rhode Island Party," he wrote.
Then came an update, adding Hopkinton and Jamestown to the towns that invalidated signatures either for Ramaswamy or on petitions from the No Labels Rhode Island Party.
State Democratic Party 'concerned'
Asked if the Democratic Party would be filing challenges, new party Chair Elizabeth Perik told The Journal: "We find the recent media reports of potential signature fraud in the nomination process of the Rhode Island Presidential Primary concerning.
"The Rhode Democratic Party has confidence that the local canvassing offices, the Board of Elections and the secretary of state will uphold the integrity of the signature verification process during their review," she wrote.
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: GOP candidates make the RI ballot. But signatures are from the deceased.
