NEW ORLEANS — Of the roughly 67,000 signatures turned in to the Registrar of Voters by recall organizers, some were fake, including those of cartoon characters.
Thursday, Orleans Parish Registrar Dr. Sandra Wilson wouldn’t comment on whether those signatures were either criminal or fraudulent.
“I don’t know what their intent was. I can’t say that they were trying to be fraudulent. I think they were submitting those documents as best I can in earnest,” Wilson said.
Louisiana state law states, “no other person may sign any name to a recall petition other than his own, except when a person is unable to write.” According to a lawyer we spoke to, though, there may not be any legal consequences.
Doug Sensari says it would go through the District Attorney, who may not think it’s worth it to prosecute.
First, Sensari says, the fake signatures didn’t have much of an impact on swaying the overall outcome. Secondly, according to Sensari, it would take a lot of resources, which are already limited.
“They may just not have that as priority to prosecute,” Sensari says. “You’d either have to have an eyewitness identification saying I remember this person signing Donald duck or some type of third party identification being done. So not only do you have the issue regarding the prosecutorial discretion whether they want to use their limited resources to address this, you also have a problem in identifying who this is.”
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