Seven petition circulators who worked for a company hired by Denver sheriff’s deputies in their bid to ask voters to broaden their arrest powers used “questionable” practices, perhaps forging thousands of signatures, elections officials said Thursday.
The allegedly bogus signatures include one that purports to be from Denver City Councilman Michael Hancock, a public opponent of the petition initiative who has told authorities he never signed the petition.
“I probably felt like anyone else when someone has stolen their identity or forged their signature,” Hancock said. “It’s an empty feeling. It’s a very disappointing feeling.”
Denver Clerk and Recorder Stephanie O’Malley said she told District Attorney Mitch Morrissey she will forward the questionable signatures to his office for review and possible prosecution.
She said several names of employees in her office also showed up on the petitions, but they have told her they did not actually sign them.
Forging petition signatures is a Class 2 misdemeanor, with a maximum punishment of three months of incarceration and a $250 fine.
The deputies hired Washington-based FieldWorks to handle the petition gathering in the push for a ballot initiative that would change city charter to give the deputies enhanced arrest powers out on the streets.
Hancock and other public officials had warned that giving the deputies enhanced arrest powers outside their work stations could end up costing the city more in collective bargaining, training and liability expenses.
O’Malley and other election officials said they could not recall another instance when they had forwarded allegations of petition fraud to prosecutors for review.
“It is unlawful to affix a signature on a petition unless the person signing is the registered voter identified,” O’Malley said.
Her office found “questionable practices” by seven out of 100 petition circulators involved in the effort on behalf of the deputies. Three of the circulators were responsible for most of the problems, though, said elections director Michael Scarpello.
Laurie Moskowitz, a principal with FieldWorks, said the alleged problems were new to her.
“No one’s been in contact with us, and we haven’t heard from our clients,” she said.
Moskowitz added: “We stand by our work. We haven’t seen the problems they are alluding to.”
FieldWorks turned in nearly 60,000 signatures supporting the ballot initiative. O’Malley and her staff found that only 22,058 of those petitions were valid.
At least 24,326 of the signatures were from people who weren’t registered to vote in Denver, instantly disqualifying those signatures, Scarpello said.
Elections authorities determined that another of the 4,900 of the signatures were questionable because of substantive problems, such as the signatures not matching those on file for a registered voter. In those instances, names often were written using the same script repeatedly, Scarpello said.
Scarpello said that in some instances, it appeared as if several circulators passed petition sections among themselves and used a database of registered voters to forge names.
There were other problems too, including improper notarization of petition sections and incomplete affidavits by circulators.
FieldWorks has until Nov. 12 to cure the deficiencies in the petition, O’Malley said. She said that after that review is finished, she plans to forward the questionable signatures to Morrissey’s office.
The deputies made the ballot initiative a top priority this year, paying increased union dues in their effort to get the matter before voters.
Hancock said he felt sorry for the deputies even though he had opposed their push.
“To be defrauded like that, that’s just jacked up,” he said.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
