Judge orders independent candidate off the ballot in Va. congressional race, citing ‘out and out fraud’
By Gregory S. Schneider
September 5 at 3:36 PM
RICHMOND — A Richmond Circuit Court judge on Wednesday ordered independent candidate Shaun Brown removed from the ballot in Virginia’s 2nd District congressional race, finding that her qualifying petition was tainted by “forgery” and “out and out fraud.”
Many of those signatures were gathered by staffers working for the incumbent Republican, Scott Taylor, who is seeking a second term. Five current or former staffers for the congressman declined to answer questions in court, pleading the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. A separate criminal probe into the matter is ongoing and a state police investigator attended the civil hearing.
The Democratic Party of Virginia, which brought the civil suit against the State Board of Elections, submitted 41 affidavits from people who said their signatures were forged on petitions to get Brown qualified for the ballot. A handwriting expert testified Wednesday that of some 377 signatures collected by Taylor’s staffers, at least 146 appeared to be false.
“Those pages were riddled with forgeries,” handwriting analyst Cina Wong testified.
Brown needed 1,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot; election officials said they had identified 1,193 that could be counted, pending any rulings on forgeries. The 377 collected by Taylor staffers were part of that total.
The Democratic Party had subpoenaed Taylor to appear at the hearing, charging that he wanted to get Brown on the ballot to siphon votes from his Democratic opponent, retired Navy officer Elaine Luria.
But Judge Gregory L. Rupe granted a motion to quash Taylor’s subpoena under state law that shields sitting members of Congress from being compelled to attend civil court proceedings while the U.S. House is in session.
Brown had been the Democratic nominee against Taylor in 2016, but is facing federal fraud charges on a matter unrelated to the race, and had no party support to run again this time.
The question of Taylor’s involvement with the petition drive remained murky at Wednesday’s hearing.
Lawyer Jeffrey Breit, arguing for the Democratic Party, said the affidavits signed by Taylor’s staffers could be presumed, under case law, to signify that they were afraid to incriminate themselves by answering certain questions.
Several of the staffers invoked the Fifth at the prospect of answering whether it was Scott Taylor himself who directed them to mount the signature-gathering effort.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/judge-orders-independent-candidate-brown-off-the-ballot-in-va-congressional-race/2018/09/05/222b427c-b11c-11e8-aed9-001309990777_story.html?utm_term=.d752b3a5a6ac&wpisrc=al_local_politics__alert-local-politics&wpmk=1
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