A Maricopa County Superior Court judge is considering whether to knock Rep. David Cook off the ballot after Sen. Wendy Rogers alleged he hired circulators who forged and falsified signatures on his nomination petitions.
Attorneys representing the two Republican Legislative District 7 candidates argued in court Tuesday, with Rogers’ attorney alleging only 311 out more than 1,300 signatures Cook collected are valid.Cook needs 595 signatures to qualify for the ballot.
During thehearing, Rogers’ attorney, Tim La Sota, focused mostly on Jason Wessel, a circulator who had 40% of the signatures he collected invalidated by Gila, Pinal, and Navajo counties.
“It’s a classic ‘heads I win, tails I don’t lose proposition,’” La Sota said of circulators allegedly forging signatures. “There’s absolutely no incentive not to do that.”
Several witnesses also testified Tuesday they never signed Cook’s petition, but Cook’s attorney, Jane Ahern, argued La Sota and Rogers haven’t provided evidence that Wessel or other circulators for Cook engaged in fraudulent behavior.
She also noted that witnesses who testified they didn’t sign a petition from Cook already had their signatures invalidated by county recorders.
“(Rogers) has not and cannot demonstrate the kind of fraudulent conduct that would warrant throwing out entire batches of signatures, and in the absence of that, what we have to do is evaluate each signature individually on a case-by-case basis, which is what the county recorder’s office did and that is what this court should rest on,” Ahern said to Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Blanchard.
La Sota said during the hearing that he believes the case will come down to the signatures Wessel collected. Wessel testified to the court that he never forged anyone’s signature on Cook’s petition sheet.
Wessel said the irregularities on his petition could have possibly came from signatures from voters he didn’t physically see. He said if there’s multiple voters listed at an address he’s visited, he encourages whoever answered the door to take the petition inside and get signatures from every eligible voter at the residence while waiting by the front door.
“The chances of catching a signature from mom taking it up to her bedroom is a whole lot higher than me having to get them out of their bed to come to the door,” Wessel said.
Arizona law requires each qualified elector signing a petition to do so in “the presence of the person who is circulating the petition,” according to a circulator training guide on the secretary of state’s website.
“In other words, the circulator must personally witness each collected signature,” the training guide states.
Wessel said most of the time, voters sign the petition he’s given themin front of him and he’s never questioned signatures if they have taken the petition inside and out of his sight. He said he still considers himself in the presence of a voter if he’s at their house.
Ahern said Wessel’s “irregularities” and alleged omission of the law requiring him to be physically present of signatures doesn’t equate to fraud. She cited a 2011 Arizona Supreme Court ruling in Ross v. Bennett in whichthe court determined that fraud requires “an element of knowledge a guilty mental state.”
Blanchard took the case under advisement and is expected to make an expedited ruling as courts are directed to rule on a challenge within 10 days after it’s been filed under Arizona law. Rogers filed her challenge against Cook on April 15.
Cook announced last year he was running for state Senate and challenging Rogers for her seat in Legislative District 7. He will be termed out of the House after this year.
Cook didn’t return a request for comment from The Arizona Capitol Times by Tuesday afternoon.
Rogers has dominated legislative candidates in campaign fundraising while coasting to Republican primary victories in 2020 against Sylvia Allen and 2022 against Kelly Townsend, receiving just under 60% of votes in each race. A court victory for Rogers would mean the senator is effectively elected to another two-year term.
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