AG candidate back on ballot after judge faults process, despite fraud evidence

Republican attorney general hopeful Michael Walsh can appear on September’s primary ballot notwithstanding “substantial evidence” that fraudulent signatures were submitted in support of his nomination, a Superior Court judge has ruled.

Essex Superior Court Judge Jeffrey T. Karp‘s July 10 ruling vacates a State Ballot Law Commission decision to remove Walsh’s name from the ballot over the allegedly fraudulent nomination signatures.

In the ruling, Karp said that “despite substantial evidence in the record of voter fraud” the commission lacked jurisdiction to consider the complaint from Massachusetts Democratic Party Executive Director Adam Roof alleging that Walsh had submitted fraudulent nomination signatures and did not have the required 10,000 certified signatures to get on the ballot.

Early on in the case, Walsh moved to dismiss Roof’s complaint saying he failed to meet the requirement to serve the objection via certified mail. In its decision, the commission denied Walsh’s motion, finding that failure to meet the requirements did not hinder Walsh because he still received the objection.

Karp disagreed.

“It is this Courts view that the SBLC’s reasoning is misplaced and that the SBLC erred as a matter of law by failing to dismiss the Objection,” Karp wrote.

Walsh celebrated the ruling and criticized both the Democratic Party’s complaint and the commission’s decision to strike his name from the ballot.

“Elections are decided at the ballot box not by politicians and appointed bureaucrats. They lost. The voters won. And now we have an election to win,” Walsh said in a statement.

The commission plans to appeal the decision to the Supreme Judicial Court, according to Laura Giordano, a spokesperson for MassDems.

Time is running out to get the ballots ready in time for the Sept. 1 primary. Under federal law, Secretary of State William F. Galvin must issue primary ballots for this year’s election by July 18.

The 14-page decision is Walsh v. State Ballot Law Commission, et al., Lawyers Weekly No. 12-029-26.

Lieutenant governor candidate off ballot

In a separate decision, Karp ruled that Anne Manning Martin, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, cannot appear on September’s primary ballot.

Republican candidate for lieutenant governor Shawn Oliver and Democratic Party Executive Director Adam Roof filed similar complaints with the State Ballot Law Commission alleging Manning Martin had filed fraudulent nomination signatures and did not receive the necessary 10,000 certified signatures to appear on the ballot. The complaints were considered as one and, on June 26, the commission sustained their challenges to 1,279 of the 10,692 nomination signatures Manning Martin submitted.

On July 10, Karp addressed Roof’s and Oliver’s motions to scrub Manning Martin from the ballot separately. Karp overruled the commission’s decision on Roof’s complaint and upheld the commission’s ruling on Oliver’s objection. The judge ruled that the commission’s decision to bar Manning Martin’s name from appearing on September’s primary ballot was “affirmed.”

In the three-page order, Karp said he planned to issue a formal memorandum on July 13 explaining his reasoning. Karp said the decision to overturn the commission’s ruling on Roof’s complaint stemmed from his failure to comply with the requirement to send the objection via certified mail — similar to Karp’s reasoning in the ruling to restore Walsh’s name to the ballot. Karp found Oliver complied with the mailing requirements and said the commission’s decision to invalidate Manning Martin’s signatures was supported by “substantial evidence.”