Two Pa. Democratic campaigns face allegations of forgeries on petitions ahead of primary

Two Democratic campaigns are facing questions about whether they submitted campaign documents littered with forged signatures.

One candidate could be booted from the ballot if a challenge holds up in court, while the other candidate’s documents have spurred an investigation by the Chester County District Attorney’s Office.

The campaigns for both Allen King, a candidate for a Philadelphia state Senate seat, and Mark Pinsley, a candidate for auditor general, listed at least two of the same people as circulators for their petitions they submitted to appear on the April primary ballot. The signatures included in those petitions have come under scrutiny.

Campaigns are required to gather a certain number of signatures from registered voters from their party in their respective district in order to make it on the ballot.

King, a first-time candidate, is seeking to oust incumbent State Sen. Nikil Saval in the Democratic primary. But seven Democrats in the district filed a challenge this week contesting 1,227 of the 1,351 signatures King submitted as invalid.

If the Commonwealth Court upholds the challenge, only 124 of King’s signatures would qualify, which is less than a quarter of the required 500 signatures to make it on the ballot for the state Senate race.

“The signatures that Mr. King submitted are extraordinarily deficient in pretty fundamental ways, and that speaks to a campaign that isn’t prepared to represent this district in the legislature,” said Anthony Campisi, the communications director for Saval’s campaign.

Beyond the alleged signature issues, the challenge accuses King of not meeting the one-year residency requirement to make it on the ballot. King is documented changing his voter registration on Jan. 29, after the petition period began.

According to Saval’s campaign, King was registered to vote in Montgomery County as recently as Jan. 10, and before that, he was registered in Delaware County. King also hasn’t been civically active, only voting in elections in 2008 and 2020, the campaign said.

King’s campaign declined to comment on all of the allegations, but a person familiar with the matter said the campaign is reviewing them.

Saval’s campaign found several instances in which voters’ names are misspelled on King’s petitions, even using two different spellings on the same line — like “Brian” and “Bryan.” There are at least two cases where voters wrote their age and sex, which are not required on the petition but would be listed on a list someone could copy from.

Out of 200 signatures Saval’s campaign checked voter records for, signatures only matched in 11 cases, the campaign said. In one case, someone said that a circulator told them the petition was to raise the minimum wage, according to Saval’s campaign.

“You don’t need a handwriting expert to know these are bad signatures,” Campisi said in reference to King’s petitions.

Saval’s campaign alleges that signatures gathered by two circulators, Clare Halvorsen and Brooke Bales, “look egregiously forged.” Both are Temple University students.

Halvorsen is one of at least two people listed as circulator for both King and Pinsley’s campaigns, along with fellow Temple student Deja Armstrong.

Armstrong told The Inquirer last week that she “never forged a signature” when asked about the dispute over Pinsley’s petition. She declined to comment for this article when contacted about the signatures on King’s petition.

Todd Bales, an attorney representing his daughter, Brooke Bales, and Halvorsen, declined to comment on their behalf.

Pinsley, the Lehigh County controller, is running against State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, who was endorsed by the state Democratic Committee, in the April primary.

Chester County activists say Pinsley’s petitions have a slew of red flags, including at least four signatures for elected officials who confirmed with The Inquirer that they didn’t sign them: Chester County Judge Alita Rovito, Coatesville City Council members Carmen Green and Khadija Al-Amin, and West Goshen Township Supervisor Nate Wolman.

Rovito is not permitted to sign petitions under judicial ethics rules, and Green, Al-Amin, and Wolman all said they signed Kenyatta’s petitions.

Lani Frank, a local Democratic committee member, said everyone local party activists have spoken to whose name was on Armstrong’s petitions for Pinsley said they didn’t sign it.

“There isn’t one person who said, ‘yes, that’s my signature,’” Frank said.

Rovito referred the matter to the Chester County District Attorney’s Office last week. The office confirmed this week that its detectives are investigating.

Green and Al-Amin both said the geographic routes the circulator would have taken on the petitions with their names didn’t make sense. Plus, petitions had dates on them prior to the petitioning period, names written oddly, and signatures in similar handwriting.

“There are so many red flags that in my opinion — and this is just my opinion — if his campaign was truly looking at those petitions, they would see the same red flags that we see,” said Al-Amin.

Green, who hadn’t even heard of Pinsley, said she wouldn’t have even been home when a canvasser would have come by, but her family members, who are also Democrats, said no one knocked on the door.

“I’ve never even written my name like that,” Green said. " … I’m not really sure who circulated that petition, but it’s a fake.”

Mariel Martin, Pinsley’s campaign manager, said the campaign is doing an internal investigation and declined to comment further.

Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.