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February 7, 2012

State Elections Board investigating Kidd petition signatures

From staff reports The Union-Recorder

MILLEDGEVILLE — Georgia state Rep. Rusty Kidd said the Georgia State Election Board is investigating some of the signatures on his initial petition filed  with the agency in order to be placed on the election ballot as an independent candidate.

Kidd, who was first elected to fill the District 141 seat in 2009 following the resignation of longtime legislator Bobby Parham, is registered as an independent candidate and relies on the petition submitted to the Secretary of State's office to be placed on the ballot as opposed to Republican or Democratic parties that can conduct primary elections to nominate a candidate. Kidd sought 2,000 signatures to be placed on the ballot in the 2010 general election.

According to an executive summary issued by the office of the Secretary of State, some of the signatures on the petition could not be verified by the Baldwin County Board of Registrars.

Registrars filed the complaint with the Secretary of State's Office following one man's contention that he had not signed the petition and wanted his name removed.

In the course of the investigation, according to the summary, 17 names were identified as unverifiable, indicating that other individuals entered the names and signed the petition.

An investigation into the signatures indicated that one man's name was placed on the petition by his mother who indicated she did not know she did anything wrong. After matching signatures on 126 pages of the petition, investigators located and contacted the individuals whose signatures did not match and discovered that a spouse or family member signed their names or that their signatures had changed, verifying their names on the petition.

Circulators of the petition were also investigated and found to be supporters or employers who had no training or instruction on conducting the petition drive outside of instructions on the petition itself. The investigation also indicated that some who circulated the petition did not ask signers if they were in fact registered to vote prior to them signing.

According to the report, there is no evidence to support that anyone received compensation for circulating of signing the petition.

The report does find, however, suggested violations of the Georgia code and the Secretary of State's office will conduct a hearing on the matter later in the month.

The hearing, set for Wednesday, Feb. 29, will be held at 10 a.m. at the Professional Licensing Board, Building B located at 237 Coliseum Drive in Macon.

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