WOONSOCKET – The city’s Board of Canvassers has asked police to investigate “ irregularities ” in the nomination papers of mayoral candidate Keith Harrison, including more than a dozen signatures on one nomination page alone that the board says do not match signatures on file.
Former Cranston Mayor Allan Fung , a lawyer working in the city solicitor’s office, said the board met in executive session Monday night and voted to have law enforcement review the nomination papers for any potential fraud, which would be a felony.
If necessary, the local police department could ask the state police to help as well, Fung said.
What does Harrison say?
Meanwhile, Harrison, who told The Journal on Tuesday he was unaware of the board’s meeting, denied any wrongdoing.
“I am not a criminal," he said. "I'm not stupid. I'm not going to anybody’s federal prison over a signature."
“Am I worried about this? Absolutely not. I have a job to do, I’m going to continue to campaign," he continued. "I’m going to remain strong. This is nothing but a slander.”
Yes, he said, the board does have an obligation to look into any irregularities in nomination papers.
“My question is – when they are wrong, which they will be wrong, will I get a formal apology of this?” asked Harrison. “And as the past has shown, there is usually never an apology. So therefore, you’ve just damaged somebody’s good name based upon a false allegation.”
Questions about Harrison’s nomination papers were first reported last week by WPRI. Harrison confirmed that yes, there are allegations that his nomination papers include the signatures of at least two dead people.
But Harrison, 37, said, he, like any other candidate out collecting signatures for public office, is not able to verify names and signatures while knocking on doors and soliciting signatures of passersby.
“I cannot ask a registered person, a non-registered person, any type of person for their ID. I can’t," he maintained. "That infringes on people’s privacy. As we all know, frauds and scams are on an all-time high. So, everyone is keeping their credentials very close to them right now.”
He said he ran for lieutenant governor in the past and for mayor in 2022 but did not gather enough signatures, so he opted to run a write-in campaign. He could have done that again this year, too, so he didn’t need to forge signatures, he said.
Harrison is running against current Mayor Christopher Beauchamp and City Council President John Ward.
Going deeper on the signature issues
All mayoral candidates must collect at least 100 signatures of registered voters to be on the ballot. Harrison said he collected between 150 and 200 signatures.
According to the Board of Canvassers office, Harrison submitted 179 names on 16 pages of nomination forms. And he met the 100 necessary signatures of registered voters to be on the ballot.
Each page had boxes for people to print their name, list their address and provide their signature.
To the far right of the signature box is a small box for a Board of Canvassers code letter, used to check each signature: A for accepted; B for blank line; D for duplicate; N for not registered/found; NE for not eligible; S for signature does not match and WD for wrong district.
Fung said the Board of Canvassers paid particular attention to one page of Harrison’s nomination papers.
On page 5, none of the 20 names were accepted, according to the codes provided.
Fourteen were found not to match signatures on file, four were not registered and two were listed as not eligible.
Harrison said the focus should be on all his nominations papers, not a single page.
“I’m not some stupid kid,” he said. “I'm 37 years old and a veteran at heart. The one thing I’m not going to do is destroy my own reputation.”
Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com .
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: 'I'm not some stupid kid:' Woonsocket mayoral candidate's nomination papers sent to police
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