Five Republican Town Committee (RTC) candidates have filed an SEEC complaint against RTC Chair Beth MacGillivray and others stemming from potentially forged signatures on an election petition. The complaint, filed with the State Elections Enforcement Commission (SEEC), involves the actions stemming from RTC leadership initiating primaries to challenge the results of the Jan. 9 caucus endorsement of RTC candidates for District 5’s seats.
Michael Hahn, Andreas Duus, Jerry Cincotta, Marc Johnson, and Paul Olmsted were initially endorsed by Riverside Republicans. It was expected that most of those people would not support MacGillivray for re-election as Chairman. This led to MacGillivray to leading a petition drive to force a primary challenging the committee seats.
The complaint alleges that MacGillivray and others collected signatures that included forged signatures highlighting instances like William Deutsch’s signature appearing on the petition while he was out of town, raising questions about the petition’s legitimacy.
In her response to the complaint, MacGillivray told CT Examiner that it’s the registrar’s job to verify signatures, not the circulators. “I have no responsibility in verifying people,” the CT Examiner said she told them. “The registrar’s the one that verifies the signatures.”
The Republican Registrar, Fred DeCaro, confirmed that 52 of the 62 signatures submitted were verified as registered Republicans but clarified that McGillivray and other circulators are, in fact, responsible for confirming the identity of the person signing. He provided copies of the petitions to The Sentinel on which MacGillivray signed the following statement:
I am the Circulator of this petition page and I make this statement pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 153 of the General Statutes of Connecticut…Each person whose name appears on this petition signatures page signed the same in person in my presence. I either know each such signer or such signer satisfactorily identified himself or herself to me. I hereby declare under the PENALTIES OF FALSE STATEMENT, that the statements made in the foregoing Circulator’s Statement of Authenticity of Signatures are true.
The SEEC is reviewing the complaint and will decide what type of investigation will be conducted.
