Challenger claims Sara Cambensy ineligible for ballot due to invalid petition signatures; Cambensy responds
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MARQUETTE -- Independent State Senate candidate Sara Cambensy released a statement on Friday that there had been a challenge made to the Elections Board of Canvassers she attributed to the Marquette County Democratic Party and the Michigan Democratic Party, alleging that invalid qualifying petition signatures rendered her campaign unqualified to appear on the November ballot. Cambensy denies these allegations.
"Sara Cambensy needed to file at least 1,500 valid signatures on qualifying petitions in order to be a candidate without party affiliation in the 38th Senate District," read the challenge. "She claimed to 2,349 signatures. In fact, after eliminating defective signatures, signatures on sheets with forged circulator names and sheets signed by Cambensy as circulator which she did not in fact circulate, there were far fewer than 1,500 valid signatures. Cambensy does not qualify to appear on the ballot."
The challenge alleged that Cambensy, a former state representative from Marquette who held office as a Democrat, signed 110 petitions as circulator, but that she did not circulate the petitions herself and that therefore the signatures collected were invalid. The challenge produced three signed affidavits of petition signers claiming that Cambensy was not the circulator of the petitions they signed and which she signed as circulator.
The challenge further alleges that Jason Chapman, Cambensy's campaign manager, had his circulator signature forged on his circulated petitions, rendering those collected signatures also invalid.
"The broad overall structure of these signatures share similar characteristics but upon examination they have distinctive flourishes and styles that indicate three or more writers were signing the name,” read the challenge.
Finally, the challenge alleged that Chapman, as a "Democratic Party leader," could not circulate petitions for an independent candidate (the challenge states that Chapman has been an elected Democratic Precinct Delegate, a Michigan Dems staff member, a founding member of 906 Dems and the campaign manager for Democratic candidates).
"If (Cambensy) is a candidate without affiliation, she cannot rely on the assistance of partisans," said the challenge.
The challenge then presented a spreadsheet of 268 individual defective signatures, alleging issues such as use of a former address, the signer being out of district or invalid dates.
Cambensy's response stated that "The Marquette County Democratic Party and the Michigan Democratic Party are trying to keep an independent candidate off the ballot because the two-party system protects its own power -- not the people.
"Their far-reaching claims that my petitions have deep and widespread fraud is a desperate attempt to drive my total number of accepted signatures below the 1,500 minimum to invalidate my candidacy."
Cambensy refutes two out of the three signed affidavits stating that she had not circulated their petitions, saying that she had been conversing with a previous signer while those two people had signed her petition, that she was "about 12 feet away" from them at the time and that she could see them signing from where she was standing.
Chapman signed an affidavit stating that none of his signatures were forged. Chapman also went through each of the signatures which the challenge alleged were invalid and gave reasons why they were valid.
"My signatures does vary depending on several factors, including what surface I'm writing on, the angle I'm writing on, how quickly I'm signing my name and if my hand is shaking that day," said Chapman.
The Michigan Board of Canvassers is set to meet Aug. 14.
Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.