PROVO, Utah — With less than two weeks to go, the effort to repeal Proposition 4 in the state still faces a deficit of around 75,000 signatures to even get on the November ballot, and a recent discovery by the Utah County Clerk may set those efforts back even further.
"In today's world, you've got to be very careful both in real life and online, what you do, what you sign, what you look at," said Landon Conover.
Conover was caught off guard by a call he received earlier this month in the efforts to repeal Prop 4.
"I got a voicemail, actually. He said, 'We got your signature on a petition. It doesn't match the signature we have on file for you,'" Conover explained.
Both Conover and his wife received the call that claims to be from Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson, and they're not alone.
"This is probably the most extensive fraud that we've seen," said the real Davidson on Tuesday.
U of U students warn of misleading tactics used to gather Prop 4 repeal signatures:
The move to get the repeal on the ballot stems from those angry over the state's new congressional maps. Proposition 4 was passed in 2018 and created an independent commission to draw congressional boundaries and prohibit gerrymandering. The Republican-led repeal effort must collect approximately 140,000 signatures by the upcoming deadline.
Davidson said his office has flagged more than 500 fraudulent signatures on the petition to have Prop 4 placed on the ballot. In some cases, the clerk believes they forged names like Conover's.
"It's not a petition I want to sign, so it's fraudulent," said Conover.
"They're not just fraudulent signatures," added Davidson. "[The fraudulent person] is making up names and addresses. It's like a non-existent person."
The discoveries have led to whole packets of 20-30 signatures at a time being thrown out.
"So far, we've got 27 packets we'll be turning in. I'm still looking at some other ones," explained Davidson.
Those who are experienced in fake signature gathering say it can happen to some degree.
"We always know with signature gathering, there's going to be some margin of error. But seeing that level is something we never saw," explained Elizabeth Rasmussen, Executive Director, Better Boundaries
Rasmussen worries that the expanding world of paid gatherers and the incentives they're chasing could fuel the problem.
"It's nothing against the sponsor or the gathering company. It's really against the packet-gatherers," said Davidson.
So far, Davidson's office has identified at least seven paid gatherers who are involved in the scam.
"It's a felony," he said. "If you have multiple in a packet… it's going to be obvious to us. It's not worth it."
