Well, the Waukegan News-Sun has decreed that some of the Terry Link petition circulators engaged in the practice of "roundtabling," which apparently is a scheme where a group of people take old petitions or voter lists to come up with names and addresses, and then pass the petitions around the table among the 'roundtablers' to try to make the fake signatures not look too similar. Call TA sheltered, but I've never heard of this practice before the Link debacle. Maybe because I'm a Republican, and I'm not from Chicago. The News-Sun story is here, but the funny part is that the latest signature to be accused of being a forgery is a former News-Sun editor named Ed Nash, who appears on page 132 (line 15) of the petitions. Problem is, Nash passed away in May 2006.
For those who you who may be new to the story, Senator Link was accused by his primary election opponent, Jerry Johnson (formerly Mayor of North Chicago), of submitting fraudulent petitions to the Illinois State Board of Elections for the Democratic nomination for the 30th state senate district. See our some of our previous posts here and here and here. Among the signatures Johnson claimed were fraudulent on the Link's petitions were at least two other deceased individuals and Charles "Chuck" Fitzgerald, Link's former Republican opponent in the last two general elections.
Link's petitions were primarily circulated by two individuals, Jerry D. Knight and Kenneth Davidson. (Jerry Knight was the circulator for the page of the petition on which Nash's name appears). Johnson claims that the simple fact that around 119 pages of petitions (at 25 signatures per page) out of Link's total of 139 pages were circulated by only two people is highly suspicious in and of itself. See the News-Sun's previous story quoting Johnson here. The fact that forgeries of both the living and dead are turning up on these petitions gives Johnson ammunition to argue that there is a pattern of fraud such that all petitions circulated by the individuals that have the forgeries should be rejected. What the news media has failed to recognize thus far is that, if the 'pattern of fraud' case is made, Johnson does not need to individually knock another 500 or so signatures off Link's petitions (over 1500 have already been removed, out of around 3100) to have Link kicked off the primary ballot. Just having one of the two primary circulators, Knight or Davidson, will do it, due to the huge numbers of sigs collected by these two.
Needless to say the Johnson campaign is continuing to investigate and is working on getting affidavits from those (still living) people whose signatures are apparent forgeries to confirm that such folks did NOT actually sign the petitions. Confirming the dead folks is a little more complicated, but death certificates are public records, so that just takes a little more digging. The two prior confirmed dead folks plus Nash brings the total number of deceased on the Link petitions to three, but who knows how many more will be discovered.
The News-Sun article chides this action as 'fudging.' Link has called all of these allegations "nonsense." TA has a better term for it. Lying. Even better, how about lying under oath? Sadly, Senator Link has still not bothered to do any investigation of these accusations, as far as has been made public. All he has done is send his lawyer to defend the Johnson challenge before the State Board of Elections.
But that may be OK. TA hears that investigations are proceeding with or without Senator Link's acquiescence. And the end result of those investigations may be a lot more interesting than the simple issue of whether Link remains on the ballot for the Dem primary as a result of whatever decision the State Board makes. Then maybe the News-Sun will come out with a stronger condemnation of such actions of the part of an elected official, even a Democrat.
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19 comments:
What's this I hear now TA? The two knights of the Link roundtable who circulated all of those signatures that are being contested took an oath on each sheet they circulated stating they lived at addresses they never lived at? 125 notarized signatures of the Knights of the Link Roundtable circulators or so representing more individual fibs under oath?
Shouldn't those entire pages be tossed as being fraudulently attested to? Will those two knights be testifying before the State Board of Elections or are they still hiding? Rumor has it that Pete Couvell has them hiding in a building he owns. Do they stay in hiding until after the hearings are over with? Will the State Board demand their presence?
Giving such behavior at "dart" is like a slap on a wrist with a wet noodle.
Anon 9:35, I would think the State Board would have to strike the signatures collected by Knight and/or Davidson if they determined that "too many" signatures were fraudulent, but as I understand it, the threshold number for how many dead folks or other confirmed forgeries on petitions isn't set in stone.
I guess the question the Board will have to answer is "how many dead folks does it take to invalidate a circulator?"
I'm more interested in how many forged signatures does it take for someone to be indicted.
Sure would be nice to see justice served...but will the State Board of Elections really uphold the law or will they make exceptions for the all too powerful Link.
Makes you wonder...so far there are several confirmed signatures of deceased individuals and individuals that have signed affidavits stating their signature was forged. Shouldn't all the petitions of the circulators that have forged signatures be thrown out? How can they just cherry pick pages?
An indictment should follow as a reminder to all candidates, regardless of their status, level of power or who they know, that laws are to be followed, especially by law makers - even Terry Link.
By the way Terry, would you like cheese and crackers with your whine?
Anon 12:30 PM;
As I understand it they can "cherry pick" individual signatures and throw them off or toss the entire page if several forgeries exist. The rest stay and get counted. The exception is when the State Board determines a pattern of fraud exists, which sounds like a high standard of proof. Then all of them get tossed.
What I don't understand and someone who knows better in this area will have to enlighten us on is how two circulators who lied about their own addresses and had their lies notarized (sworn to under oath) can still have the signatures they obtained/generated (depends on who is arguing it) still stand?
If the circulators lied about their own addresses on all those sheets (and they obtained 1,800 signatures) then who is to know when they are telling the truth if they show up and verify that all the signatures they obtained/generated were legit?
Louis G. Atsaves
Lou, the only thing I would add to your comment in the first paragraph is that I think it's likely that the Board will delete only individual forgeries unless "enough" forgeries from a particular circulator are found such that they dump ALL the sigs gathered by that particular circulator.
It would make little sense for the Board to reject an entire page based on too many forgeries on a particular page, but then let the other pages circulated by that same individual survive. Either that circulator is deemed completely untrustworthy (in which case they all get thrown out) or the Board decides he just got a few bad signatures, in which case it's all individual strikes.
I think you do see whole pages being struck for too many bad signatures, but more often that is the only page a particular circulator has done. Here, where we have scores of pages circulated by the same two guys, I think it logically should only be a strike of individual sigs, or the entire collection of pages from a particular circulator.
But we will see.
As to the issue of "bad addresses" of the circulators themselves being sufficient to strike all the pages of that circulator, I have asked around and no one seems to think that it's sufficient, in and of itself, but again, it's up to the Board, so this is going to be VERY interesting.
The Board of Elections has no standing rules. They adopt guidelines at the start of their meeting, and they are free to make arbitrary decisions. If they make an obviously poor decision, all you can do is take the issue to court. And obviously that costs time and money. By statue, the Board is partisan. It's a very undemocratic system.
That's why I'm more optimistic about other avenues of justice.
Hey Anon 9:35- I should have asked this before, but how do you know Pete Couvall is hiding Knight and/or Davidson? And where?
And more importantly, why would they be hiding? As far as I know, the State Board has not required them to testify? Could it be other authorities are looking for them? Or they are afraid certain authorities might be soon?
Or is it Pete Couvall who is afraid?
You generally don't hide unless you have something TO hide.
Itks time we call Sen. Terry Link a corrupt politician who should be indicted.
This is outstanding. Dump the scumbag, put Eric Elk in charge and let's run game.
On to more important matters. Much as I dislike her, given her recent post, I am convinced Ellen either needs an intervention or to be committed.
How in the world can you still question that we are facing a determined enemy who will stop at nothing to destroy us and that if it wasn't for the u.s., and I speak as someone who works with these euro weanies daily, the world would be much more accepting of terrorism?
E
Ed Nash died sometime ago but Senator Link (D-Vernon Hills) swore an affidavit to the voters of Illinois that he lives and signed the Link petitions for election.
This should be referred to Patrick Fitzgerald's office of the U.S. Attorney.
Erik Elk for President!
TA:
Larry Jelinek died last winter -- but Senator Link swore an oath that he signed his petition.
Ed Chrapkowski died a few years ago -- but Senator Link swore an oath that he signed his petition.
Ed Nash died in May -- but Senator Link swore an oath that he signed his petition.
Jesus only raised one person -- Lazarus -- from the dead. Senator Terry Link raised three people from the dead to keep himself on the ballot.
TA - you have clear evidence of a crime committed here.
I have been able to obtain a top secret, partial transcript of the closed-door debate from the State Board of Elections:
"People, people, how was Terry to know whether the person standing in front of him signing his petition was dead? It's not Terry's job to take people's pulses when they sign. This all sounds like an innocent mistake..."
Well, Lazarus, "I" don't have the evidence- I'm just a humble reporter/blogger/pundit. The evidence is in the hands of the Johnson campaign, which is contesting the Link petitions before the State Board of Elections, and if there is a criminal investigation by the State's Attorney, U.S. Attorney, Attorney General or whomever, then it's up to them to investigate and prosecute. Happily, TA's job is to sit on the sidelines and watch it all unfold, and report. If we help the truth get out there, we've done our job. And if we scoop the Mainstream Media (MSM), so much the better.
But, to play devil's advocate, to really prove that Link is guilty of a crime, I think you have to prove that #1) the "forgeries" are the result of an actual intent on the part of the petition circulators to fake the signatures, and 2) that Link ordered, condoned, or at least knew about it. While knowledge of the crime is probably not needed to invalidate the petitions, to get Link indicted, I think you'd have to prove he had direct knowledge.
Assuming that some group [and I can attest it wasn't the Republicans, as 1) we don't play those games and 2) if we did, I'd know about it] has simply orchestrated a very elaborate scheme to fake a bunch of dead folks and other well known people to get Link in trouble, then you have good evidence that the circulators have engaged in forgery. If I were Link, I'd be running away from those guys at the speed of light, and disavowing anything they did, in case they get pegged for forging those names. But, it's going to be tough, because there was basically only two of them, and they clearly were the primary focus of the Link petition drive. I find it hard to believe that Link and Pete Couvall, his right hand man, were not directly involved in everything the petition circulators were up to. Whether or not it is proven that they engaged in forgery and/or did the "roundtabling" or whatever, we will have to wait to see what develops.
POTUS- don't forget, Terry himself could not be bothered to circulate any petitions himself, so it would have had to be his minions defending that point. But has been made clear here by many people, Link is the candidate and the buck stops with him.
So at least Couvall and the circulators committed crimes.
Well, Lazarus, to really finish this line of thought, Couvall would probably say that ALL he did was notarize the signatures of the circulators, and so any forgeries of signatures of the petitions are not Couvall's fault. Of course, the word is that the two primary circulators may not actually have lived at the addresses they gave, so Couvall would probably say that at worst, he was guilty of not checking the addresses of the people whose signature he attested to. Maybe he'd lose his notary certification or something. And perhaps the petitions might get rejected if the addresses of the circulators were bad, but we're focusing on the potential criminal side of this for now.
So, if Couvall disavows the circulators' actions and Link disavows the circulators' actions, but the forgeries by the circulators are proven, that means that the circulators have to flip and cough up Couvall and Link (i.e., they gave the orders to do the roundtable or at least knew of it, etc.), or the circulators face the music by themselves. If they are facing jail time, but could skate if they finger Couvall and Link, maybe they'd roll over.
As one anonymous commentor on this board alleged, if Couvall IS hiding the circulators from an investigation, Couvall has no doubt figured all of this out and is scared his guys will flip on him.
MY LEGAL DISCLAIMER: Of course, all of this is SPECULATION at this point, as to what COULD theoretically occur if certain charges are brought against certain individuals and these charges are proven. As far as I know, no charges have been brought against the circulators, Couvall or Link, and I don't have any OFFICIAL word that they are actually being investigated by the authorities.
BUT this whole situation smelled to high heaven from the beginning, and it ain't getting any fresher.
Kane County State's Attorney Gene Armontrout, a Republican, was indicted for round tabling on an advisory petition that Jim Thompson put on the ballot in 1978.
He lost his law license. Don't know if he went to jail.
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