NEWS

Board on pot petitions: 'You can't sign up dead people'

Dan Horn
dhorn@enquirer.com
Marijuana.

The campaign to legalize marijuana in Ohio is under investigation for possible voter fraud because the names on petitions and registration forms included dead people, prisoners and voters who say they never filled out the form.

The Hamilton County Board of Elections decided Tuesday to begin issuing subpoenas to find out why about two dozen names appear to be phony or improper. All of the questionable names are connected to the successful campaign to get Issue 3 on the ballot in Ohio.

"Overzealous is a polite word for it," said Tim Burke, chairman of the board of elections. "You can't sign up dead people. You can't sign for other people. That should never happen."

Fellow board member Alex Triantafilou said he'll push for criminal prosecution of anyone who committed fraud while gathering petitions or registering people to vote.

"It tears at the integrity of the system," he said.

The leader of the Issue 3 campaign said his lawyers have been contacted by Hamilton County officials and will cooperate with the investigation. The Strategy Network led the petition drive to get Issue 3 on the ballot and has registered more than 150,000 new voters as part of the campaign.

"We fully comply with the law and we have zero tolerance with regard to fraud," said Ian James, CEO of Strategy Network and executive director of ResponsibleOhio, the group leading the pro-legalization campaign. "We will work with the prosecutor to make sure anyone who committed a crime is brought to justice."

Issue 3 is the largest, most organized and best-funded effort yet to legalize marijuana in Ohio. If voters approve it, the measure would amend Ohio's constitution to allow pot to be grown for commercial sale at 10 locations across the state, including three in Greater Cincinnati. The amendment also would allow individuals to grow small amounts for personal use.

The allegations in Hamilton County come a few months after Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted said he found discrepancies in some of the petitions submitted by ResponsibleOhio. The state ultimately concluded the group had gathered enough valid signatures to get Issue 3 on the ballot in November, but Husted still is pursuing his investigation.

He went to court Tuesday to force ResponsibleOhio to comply with his subpoena demands. He accused James of failing to comply and asked a Franklin County judge to order him to do so.

Husted's memorandum to the court says the state has received almost 700 accusations of fraud related to the Issue 3 campaign. He listed seven other counties where complaints have been made and said the problems include signing up dead people, teenagers too young to vote and people who don't appear to exist.

"No one by that name lives here," one voter wrote back after receiving a voter registration notice. "This is a fake!"

Board of Elections officials say the problems in Hamilton County are potentially serious, too, and would result in felony charges if proven true.

Burke, a Democrat, and Triantafilou, a Republican, both say they support the investigation. The four-member board, which often splits along partisan lines, is not divided on this issue.

Board officials discovered discrepancies on the petitions and voter registration forms when reviewing them over the past few weeks.

Triantafilou said the board found six people who claim they did not sign voter registration forms submitted by Responsible Ohio. Four other registration forms were signed with the names of dead people, and 11 names on petitions were from dead people.

"This happened before the pope was here, so we know there were no miracles," Burke said of the deceased voters.

At least two other registration forms turned out to bear the names of inmates who were in prison at the time they supposedly signed the forms.

Triantafilou said mass petition drives can sometimes lead to trouble, either because of mistakes or intentional deception. "It's a problem," he said. "These groups get involved and they hire some unsavory people."

Burke said the potential fraud is a problem, but he cautioned that the number of questionable forms and signatures found so far is small compared to the number collected. He said he has no doubt ResponsibleOhio, which collected about 1 million signatures, did enough to place Issue 3 on the ballot.

"This issue deserves to be on the ballot," Burke said. "But there were problems because of the quality of the petition gathering. And in some cases, some people may have done something illegal."