The campaign of Rhode Island Lieutenant Governor Sabina Matos, who is a candidate in the Democratic Party Primary for US House, 1st District, Rhode Island, on Tue, Sept 5:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Rhode_Island%27s_1st_congressional_district_special_election
has been accused of gathering fraudulent signatures. Here is a story on this matter. Ms. Matos has blamed an outside signature “vendor” for submitting bad signatures and has said that she will not withdraw from the race.
I am not sure why a major party candidate would need a signature vendor, as the signature requirement for US House elections in Rhode Island is 500 signatures within a district.
CANDIDATE/INCUMBENT REPLACEMENT LISTS
NOOO MO SPECIAL ELECTIONS
Once again, that’s why I despise petition gathering signatures. Charge $100 to get on the state ballot and have a treasurer.
AZ hates democracy. He prefers appointed positions.
Candidate replacement lists is a retarded idea.
@AZ,
This is not a special election.
JR
NOTE SPECIAL ELECTION IN THE STORY WIKI
AUG ODD YEAR – AIN’T A REGULAR PRIMARY ELECTION DATE FOR USA REP
@BR,
RI requires signatures to be turned in to individual towns. The resignation was unexpected. Whomever wins the Democrat primary can be expected to hold the seat until RI loses its 2nd seat or they die.
There are 12 Democrats in the primary. There might not be professional petioning firms in RI.
It appears the “vendor” is just a one-woman operation. Through her lawyer she claims that the Matos campaign did not give her or the circulators directions. She claims that she personally did not collect any fraudulent signatures, though she signed some forms collected by others which meant she was attesting that she had witnessed them.
Matos as the only candidate has run statewide would be the overwhelming favorite. So far she doesn’t appear to take responsibility. This could be a pretty bad look in a debate. Those men are being mean to me and distracting from the real issues only goes so far.
Probably because they were too lazy to gather the signatures themselves.
The hard part of petitioning in Rhode Island, and other New England states,. is that the petitions have to be separated by town, and delivered to each city and town hall separately for certification. And, often, they have to be picked up from each town, and any challenges to the signature certifications have to be re-submitted to the town. Alhto, I believe that in the case of RI, the towns will then deliver them directly to the Secretary of State.
This is NOT true in nearby Massachusetts, where each petition sheet has to be picked up by the candidates from the city and town halls, of which there are over 300 in Massachusetts, and then delivered to the Secretary. It is often the case that even major party candidates, especially Republicans, don’t make the ballot in Massachusetts for lack of signatures. And, sometimes, in Massachusetts a major party candidate with enough cash, usually a Democrat, will hire as many signature collectors as possible, and turn in a large surplus of signatures, just to dry up the entire market of collectors from other candidates.
ONE VOTER NOM/ISSUE PET FORMS
WASTE PAPER AND KILL TREES GOT IT.
Eating pets and killing trees is part of the artificial zombie’s hatred of all carbon based lifeforms. It constantly spews hatred of all kinds of humans as well.
“ONE VOTER NOM/ISSUE PET FORMS”
New Hampshire actually does this. It makes a lot of sense in a New England state where the signatures have to be certified separately by each town.
It doesn’t. Other New England states don’t and manage their collection and distribution just fine.
HOW MANY STATES HAVE A UNIFORM STATE REGISTRATION SYSTEM WITH A-L-L REGISTERED VOTER SIGS ???
— DUE TO BUSH V GORE 2000 FL MESS AND LATER 2002 USA HAVA LAW.
Dirty secret of petition verification: signatures on petitions are almost never compared to voter registrations, whether by petition company internal check or government verification, except during challenges. Normally, only names, addresses, and dates of birth are compared, with no investigation of whether signatures match.
@Andy,
Who is “they” in “they were too lazy”?
Presumably Sabina Matos and her family/friends/staff/supporters?
@NAndy,
Using the Lt. Governor staff might be illegal. Matos might have less of a political organization than you might expect. In 2021, the governor resigned to become a cabinet secretrary. The Lieutenant Governor became governor, and appointed Matos to be Lieutenant Governor. Previously, she had been a city councillor in Providence, where 50 signatures are needed. She was elected Lieutenant Governor in 2022. I think she may have been able to get on the primary ballot with an endorsement.
The “outside vendor” is a misstatement. It was a part-time campaign worker. The campaign printed nomination forms and gave instructions to the circulators. In some cases, the circulator returned them to the campaign where they were notarized (which apparently does not mean the notary validated the claim, but only verified the identity of the oathtaker, “I’m Joe Smith and witnessed the signatures.”
Holly McClaren was paid $15/hour. She personally signed a petition in Providence (on line 1). It was OK for her to circulate the petition. You don’t have to be registered or even live in Rhode Island. But to sign a petition, you have to live in the district, which she did not. That signature was disqualified.
Rhode Island permits a voter to sign multiple petitions. They apparently have petition parties, where if you are a wannabe pol, you can go and meet candidates and let them beg for your signature. This might not have happened because there is only one race.
The bad signatures were only caught in one town, and apparently so fake they reported them to the state police which triggered more scrutiny. 17 of 19 towns had done less than due diligence. Maybe they checked the addresses, but not the signatures.
The AG is now investigating. The RI Board of Elections apparently wanted the AG to validate all 720 signatures. The AG replied that he was investigating a crime, and the Board of Elections could validate the elections themselves.
Matos was asked if she had contacted McClaren, and she replied that she wasn’t the one doing the investigation.
A really bad look if the local TV stations have their investigative reporter interviewing someone whose signature was forged. “Is this your signature?” “No.” “No?” “Not a chance.” “How does this make you feel?”
“Violated.” “What do you think about Sabina Matos?” “She needs to take responsibility.”
After a couple of more voters, you go to clips of other candidates or their campaign managers. One explains that some campaigns use paid workers others use volunteers. “We use volunteers (we don’t need to pay, we have real support), but in any case you have to screen them (some mean well but they are flakes)”
@AZ,
You were right about it being a special election. Ciccilone was elected to a 7th term in November 2022. He announced in February one month into his two year term that he was going to resign.
He had attempted to run for a Democrat leadership position and was beaten by 80+ old James Clyburn (in fact he withdrew because he saw he couldn’t win).
I think that losing that race and being in the minority led him to look for another job. At 62, and with 20 years of politics, he is considered too young and inexperienced to be a party leader.
Now under your replacement list Scheme he would been able to name his successor and then quit.
At least your Conyers, Dingells, and Kirkpatricks had to win an election.
JR AND REST —
LEGISLATIVE BODIES MUST BE AT 100 PCT TO DEAL WITH ALL SORTS OF DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN MACHINATIONS.
WHAT IF ONE OF THE 911 PLANES [POSSIBLY THE PA PLANE TAKEN DOWN BY USA HEROES COUNTER-ATTACKING THE KILLER HI-JACKERS] HAD HIT THE USA CAPITOL WHILE CONGRESS WAS IN SESSION ???
SEE OLDE ACCIDENTAL PREZ SURVIVOR TV SHOW/SERIES [BASED IN PART ON 911 EVENTS ] —
CONGRESS BLDG BLOWN UP – MANY USA REPS KILLED >>> CHAOS.
I meant campaign staff, not lt gov staff. If you have to pay people to get 500 signatures, particularly as a sitting state official, there’s definitely something wrong. 10 signatures per hour is far from excellent. 50 person hours over the course of (months?) … She doesn’t have any time whatsoever herself (the candidate getting signatures can double as campaigning) and not enough friends/family/supporters to even do that much? Pretty pathetic.
Also, Rhode Island only has 50-something towns and they’re not that far apart. Way easier to do town dropoffs and pickups than other New England states. Compare Maine with over 400 towns or Massachusetts with 300 some, and much more ground to cover to reach them all. Even so, if she had to hire someone to do that part, it would be more understandable. But 500 signatures? Come on. I forgot to account for confused, illegible, and lying voters…so maybe 600 or 700. Still, it should not require hiring a contractor.
AZ, consider that your far fetched scenario hasn’t happened once in the hundreds of years congress existed, not once in any state legislature, or to my knowledge any foreign parliament. And your claim as to how indispensable they are is laughable. In the event of such a thing, we’d survive just fine for a few weeks or months without them. We would almost certainly be better off. It’s also one reason why there are national states of emergency, although they are vastly overused.
Also she was running for US house. If Rhode island still has 2 districts that’s even fewer towns, covering even less territory. Easy peasy.
@AZ,
It is not clear that Holly McClaren was not a campaign worker. You don’t think that the campaign manager is getting paid 10s of $1000s. Who is going to produce the campaign videos, but professionals? So why shouldn’t those answering phones and the like get paid?
It is not clear why Bill Redpath called McClaren an “outside vendor”. Maybe because the Matos campaign is trying to move on from the issue of “inaccurate signatures” so she can continue the fight against MAGA Republicans.
Why didn’t she just get the signatures herself if she has no friends? And if she had to hire someone, she’s still ultimately responsible for the quality of people she hired and the quality of their work. Leadership in business, politics, or anything else requires good judgement in who you hire or recruit, how you train them, etc. Proven bad leadership should disqualify someone from a leadership position such as a seat in congress.
@Mason,
She doesn’t live in the district. She is living with relatives in the district while she and her husband look for a house.
Who said she had no friends? Maybe they had jobs.
Yes, most people do have jobs. Most people also have at least some free time. We’re talking about a few dozen hours of petition gathering. A small group of people can do that on a weekend afternoon or two.
She sounds lazy.
Why does it matter whether she lives with relatives or not? Sounds irrelevant to me.
@Mason,
Maybe the campaign workers were able to work during the day. How much were they paid?
@Bob,
If her husband lives in a house they both own in a different part of town where do think she spends her nights? During the petition period she might not have moved yet.
I don’t understand why you ask those questions. Regardless of what time of day or night she spends time with her husband and the fact that she has a job, presumably she has at least some time to campaign when she’s not working, sleeping, or having sex. If she doesn’t, she shouldn’t run. If she does, she could have campaigned while petitioning.
Likewise, if she has paid campaign staff, petitioning could have been one of their duties. It doesn’t mean it would have had to have been their only job duty. She could have used the money she used on a petition vendor to hire more multipurpose campaign staff or give them more hours.
And none of that answers why 5-10 friends, relatives, and/or supporters couldn’t have gathered all the signatures in the course of a weekend afternoon or two or maybe over the course of a few hours after work a few nights over the petition period, which was probably months long.
Finally, if the only option was to hire a petition vendor, like any boss she bears ultimate responsibility for the actions of employees and contractors she hires, and like any candidate for any position she should be disqualified for proven incompetence in hiring, vetting, training, and quality controlling a contractor. I don’t want anyone representing me in congress who can’t manage something that simple. It’s a good reason not to trust such a person with managing how tax money is spent, hiring congressional staff, etc.
You’re also suggesting she committed fraud herself. If she spent her days working and her nights with her husband at home in the other part of the state, when was she “living” with her relatives? She’s not even legally required to live in the district, so if she lied about where she lived, it was only to make herself look better. While there’s no law against her living in the other district, there is one about lying where you live on official government paperwork.
My interest in this matter doesn’t reach the level to research who else worked for her doing what or during what hours. If yours does, please feel free to answer your own questions.
@Mason,
Why do you believe Matos hired an outside vendor? The vendor business was registered after the signatures were collected. Holly McClaren on her Linked-in bio says she is a bartender and works for a bookkeeping service whose owner is involved in political campaigning.
The Matos campaign gave printed instructions to circulator and provided the petition blanks. A spokesman for the campaign notarized many of the petitions. Not necessarily as part of the campaign, but because he happened to be a notary and they were bringing the petitions back to the campaign.
I guess I don’t care if she was an outside vendor or campaign staff. The campaign is ultimately responsible for the preventable screw ups of either one. There’s signature spot checking, for example. The candidate is the leader of a campaign, and thus responsible for the campaign’s mismanagement. She’s a proven mismanager. That alone is reason to disqualify her candidacy. End of story. What’s there to argue about?
The Rhode Island Board of Elections has decided to validate all the Matos petitions. Towns had validated 720 of 1200 signatures.
They decided not to subpoena the 10 to 11 circulator at this time.
Holly McClaren had been a paid worker for the Mckay gubernatorial campaign in 2022. His campaign manager is the campaign manager for the Matos campaign. So it appears that the campaign may have been careless and hired someone they knew for a relatively simple task.
The RI Board of Elections is expected to report the results of their review of the Matos petition on Tuesday.