4 dead people, 59 fraudulent signatures found on petitions filed by Scott Taylor's campaign
Eddie Newkirk was in the process of moving his mother from Virginia Beach to Scottsdale, Ariz., where he lives, when he learned that his father’s signature had appeared on a political petition.
It was for Shaun Brown, who is running in November as an independent in the 2nd Congressional District against Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Taylor and Democratic challenger Elaine Luria.
The problem was that Floyd Newkirk died in 2016 at the age of 83, according to his obituary. He was a retired Marine, Korean War veteran and long-distance truck driver.
Eddie Newkirk was disheartened to hear that his deceased father’s name was used for political gain.
“I’m not surprised,” he said. “But I’m disappointed that someone would stoop to that level.”The elder Newkirk was one of four Virginia Beach men who had died in recent years but whose names appeared on the petitions. The others were Hugh Doy, Melvin Chittum and R. Stuart Cake.
A team of reporters from The Virginian-Pilot conducted a two-week investigation of Brown’s petition signatures, trying to contact each voter listed on the dozens of pages submitted by five people paid by Taylor’s campaign.
The Pilot reached 115 of the 584 people listed – or a family member – by phone. Reporters were unable to contact the remaining 469, either because the name listed was illegible, no phone number could be found, or the person did not return messages.
Of those reached, 51 people – including several local Republican politicians – acknowledged signing the petition. Six others weren’t sure whether they did.
But 59 – more than half of those reached – declared the signatures to be fraudulent.
Tags
Who is online
403 visitors
Ya, Taylor just wanted Brown to get a 'fair' shake. /s
More of that horrible terrible left-wing vote tampering!
oh wait......