Critics find massive forgery and fraud on Sizemore's I-18

The Voter Education Project (VEP) has found rampant forgery and fraud on petition sheets turned in to the secretary of state for Initiative 18 - the latest version of an anti-union paycheck deception measure that Bill Sizemore, executive director of Oregon Taxpayers United, has been pushing on Oregon voters for the past decade.

A hearing before the Marion County Circuit Court was set for Friday afternoon, July 19.�

The forgeries became evident after VEP researched petition sheets of four signature gatherers against whom it has filed election law violation complaints. As a result, 217 people have told VEP that their signature was forged on sheets carried by Francisco Holdman, Brian Miller, Daniel Ricca or Matt Gompers. So far, VEP has collected 62 notarized affidavits from those signers and more are pending.

Based on this evidence, the Voter Education Project and four people whose names were forged on I-18 filed a lawsuit July 1 in Marion County against the Oregon secretary of state. The Oregon AFL-CIO and Oregon Education Association are co-plaintiffs.

The suit calls for the signature sheets certified by these petitioners to be set aside and not included toward qualifying I-18 until Sizemore, the chief petitioner, can prove their validity. Some of the forgeries were such good simulations that they fooled the county clerks.

VEP compared the signatures sampled with those of people who said their names were forged. Out of four signatures checked, three had been marked as good by the counties.

"We are asking the secretary of state to make sure that no bad signatures are accepted and that the handiwork of forgers is not allowed to taint the initiative process," said Patty Wentz of Voter Education Project. "If this many questionable ballots were submitted, the Elections Division would investigate immediately. Secretary Bill Bradbury says that Oregonians should treat their signature like their vote. We agree and urge him to do the same."

The four aforementioned petitioners gathered a combined total of approximately 17,700 signatures on Initiative 18, which is nearly 16 percent of the total signatures turned in for the measure, and tens of thousands more for other initiatives sponsored by Sizemore and anti-tax activist Don McIntire, VEP said.

Following the July 5 filing deadline, the Voter Education Project mailed letters to more than 15,000 of those people asking for verification of the signature on I-18. The Post Office returned the vast majority as undeliverable.

"We have the extraordinary situation of four petitioners being under investigation while the sheets they carried are sitting in the secretary of state's office waiting to be used to qualify a ballot measure. It is unthinkable that these signatures would just be tossed into the mix and treated equally with those that were circulated honestly," said Wentz.

Earlier this circulating season, two other petitioners were convicted of forgery. The Elections Division notified chief petitioners that it is a felony.

This is the second time plaintiff Patricia Moreno's signature has shown up as a forgery on a petition sheet certified by Daniel Ricca.

In February 2002 the Voter Education Project filed a forgery complaint against Ricca with the secretary of state's office. At that time VEP submitted statements from Moreno and seven other people who said their signatures had been forged on petition sheets for Initiative 20.

VEP was forced into the court system after Bradbury, the Democratic nominee for U.S. senator, refused its request to set aside the alleged forged signatures for further examination.�

Bradbury's failure to respond to documented forgeries on initiative petitions stands in stark contrast to how he and county elections officials respond to evidence of forgery on ballots.

"Our initiative petition process, just like our elections, is meant to determine the will of the voters," said Jeannie Berg, executive director of the Voter Education Project. "We don't let forged ballots determine the outcome of our elections, and we shouldn't let forged signatures determine whether we have enough support from voters to put a measure on the ballot."

If nothing else is done by the secretary of state, forged signatures could well determine the fate of Sizemore's initiatives and others now awaiting certification for the November ballot, whose margin for qualifying is likely to be razor thin.

"Not too long ago, Bill Bradbury was telling us to treat our signatures like our votes," commented Oregon AFL-CIO President Tim Nesbitt. "That was good advice then, and it's good advice now. As our chief elections officer, the secretary of state should make sure that he does not allow the handiwork of forgers to influence our initiative process."�

The state labor federation is asking Oregon voters to contact Bradbury and urge him to practice what he preaches: "Treat our signatures like our votes. Be as careful with our signatures as you are with our ballots. Don't let the forgers hijack our initiative process."

Bradbury can be reached at 1-503-986-1523.

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