Freep reporter Tresa Baldas
Forged signatures on nominating petitions are more common than many think.
One petition for Adam Hollier, who is running for the 13th Congressional District, which includes Detroit and Grosse Pointe, had one notable forged signature: Detroit Free Press reporter Tresa Baldas.
Detroit Free Press Editorial Editor Nancy Kaffer reports that Baldas, a Detroit resident who covers a lot of high profile trials and stories, denies signing the petition.
"I'm a reporter, I can't sign petitions," Baldas said. "That's not my signature.”
Some signatures can be invalidated if the person lives in another district or isn't registered to vote. But signature collectors, some who get paid around $10 per signature, have sometimes forged signatures in mass. And sometimes those forgeries can be spotted simply by noting that each signature is with the same ink and exact same handwriting.
Hollier's opponent, incumbent Congressman Shri Thanedar, is asking the Wayne County Clerk to disqualify Hollier as a candidate for the August primary, saying that just 764 of the 1,555 signatures submitted by Hollier are valid, Kaffer reports.
Hollier sent Kaffer a statement about Baldas' signature after being asked about it:
“Some issues have been brought to our attention related to a small number of the nomination signatures that were collected on behalf of our campaign. We have retained legal counsel to look into the matter, and are confident that a significant number of the challenges filed against our signatures are erroneous.”
In 2022, five Republican gubernatorial candidates in Michigan were blocked from running in the August primary because of fraudulent signatures collected by hired petition circulators.
