Rep. Eleanor Chavez, D-Albuquerque
TV stations find residents who say they didn’t sign Eleanor Chavez’s nominating petitions, even though those petitions include their names, addresses and alleged signatures.
Possible fraudulent signatures on her nominating petitions have landed State Senate candidate Eleanor Chavez in the middle of a serious controversy.
Chavez, a Democratic state representative who is giving up that seat to run for Senate, turned in petitions that include the alleged signatures of a number of people who say they didn’t sign the petitions. Law enforcement is investigating.
From KOB-TV:
“The KOB 4 On Your Side team began looking into the claims and found at least five people listed on the petition denied ever knowing, meeting, or signing any petitions for Chavez.
“4 On Your Side visited random homes listed on the petition. The homeowners included Michelle Stark, Ryan Stark, Alfred Howell, Victoria Deer, and Joseph Dangelo, all who said on camera that they never signed Chavez’s petition.”
Watch KOB’s report here:
KRQE-TV did the same legwork and found the same result:
“It takes 58 signatures from registered Democrats to get on the ballot as a Democratic candidate for the District 14 seat in New Mexico’s state senate.
“Current state Rep. Eleanor Chavez’s (D – Albuquerque) campaign submitted more than 200 on her petition to get on the ballot.
“But when News 13 went door-to-door talking to some people who had apparently signed that petition, many said they didn’t know who Chavez was, hadn’t signed anything for her campaign and that their signatures were forged.
“So far seven have signed affidavits stating they did not sign Chavez’s petition.”
Watch that report here:
Chavez says she’ll cooperate with law enforcement
The allegations were first brought up by one of Chavez’s primary opponents, Michael Padilla, who has sent out numerous news releases and e-mails about the issue, including one sent Monday alleging that Chavez “stole their identity by forging their signatures in a scheme to get herself on the ballot for her race for state senator.”
But it’s not clear that Chavez herself was involved in such a scheme, if one existed, or if a rogue campaign volunteer did it. Here’s the statement Chavez sent out Tuesday:
“I had many volunteers – friends, neighbors and family – collect signatures for our campaign. They weren’t paid canvassers – just volunteers doing their best. We are conducting an internal investigation and will fully cooperate with proper authorities to find out if any wrongdoing happened in some of our signatures or those submitted by our opponent. We had no knowledge of erroneous signature collecting by volunteers and would never allow or condone this behavior. We take the law very seriously, and will work to get to the truth of this matter as soon as possible.”