Potential election fraud under investigation in Indiana over hundreds of seemingly bogus signatures, addresses: Report

An Indiana county clerk's office discovered what appear to be fraudulent signatures and addresses on hundreds of petition papers last month, the Federalist reported Thursday.

Last week, the Indiana State Police launched an investigation after St. Joseph County Clerk Amy Rolfes and her staff alerted law enforcement and state elections officials about a potential petition forgery plot.

A volunteer for Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips, a United States representative from Minnesota, may have submitted petition papers with seemingly fraudulent signatures and addresses.

The county clerk stated that on January 25, the campaign volunteer attempted to turn in approximately 80 petition documents to help get Phillips on the state's presidential ballot. However, the papers could not be accepted because they lacked key information. According to Rolfes, the volunteer was advised to complete and return the forms for submission. The next day, the volunteer came back with 53 completed pages.

"Curiously, there were addresses that simply did not exist. The streets did, but not the house numbers," Rolfes told the Federalist.

She noted that her staff attempted to compare the signatures on the petitions to the ones in Indiana's statewide database, but they could not find matches.

"We would look through and compare the signatures, but there was nothing like them in the statewide system," Rolfes added. She called the documents' discrepancies "glaringly apparent," noting that they even included fake zip codes.

"We kept saying, 'That's not valid. That's not valid,'" she remarked.

"They thought, 'They're never going to look.' That had to be the mindset. It's like cheating on homework," Rolfes continued. "What I know is we were doing our jobs. … I feel that's the first line of defense in election integrity: Do your job. If more people did, maybe we would see more of this stuff coming to light."

Rolfes told the Federalist she knows the Phillips campaign volunteer's identity but cannot release those details.

After notifying Indian's Election Division, Rolfes and her team were instructed to complete the processing of the documents and to contact the police, she told the Federalist. Law enforcement arrived a few days later to assess the situation.

The county clerk explained that the investigation is still under way, and local officials are "making progress."

"I know it's not sitting. They're taking it very seriously," she added.

Indiana State Police Sergeant Ted Bohner told the Federalist that he could not comment on a pending investigation but noted it "is probably going to be lengthy."

Submitting fraudulent campaign petitions, requests, declarations, or certificates is a Level 6 felony in Indiana. If found guilty, the campaign volunteer could face two and a half years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

"Election fraud is not a conspiracy theory in St. Joseph County. It is real. This incident demonstrates why signature requirements and photo identification are essential elements of ensuring our elections are honest and fair," Rolfes remarked.

Phillips' campaign did not respond to requests for comment, the Federalist reported.

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