Board of Elections clarifies decision on objection to Matos signatures

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — The Rhode Island Board of Elections released a statement on its decision to investigate allegedly fraudulent signatures collected by Sabina Matos’ Congressional District 1 campaign.

The board said that it made two decisions at its July 21 meeting: to refer all of Matos’ nomination papers to the Attorney General’s office for investigation into possibly fraudulent signatures, and to reject the objection to the collected signatures submitted by Don Carlson’s campaign.

“Regarding nomination papers submitted on behalf of Congressional District 1 candidate Sabina Matos, local boards did their job, verifying signatures, rejecting signatures, identifying a subset of rejected signatures as potentially fraudulent, and referring these to state and local law enforcement for criminal investigation,” the board said.

It clarified that it rejected the challenge because “no officially designated representative of the Carlson campaign appeared to challenge specific nomination paper signatures”

“As the campaign of Sabina Matos submitted more than 500 signatures verified by local boards of canvassers, she qualified for the ballot,” it said.

The board added that the electoral and criminal investigations will also not verify the signatures for ballot placement.

Inconsistencies with signatures were first brought up by the Jamestown Board of Canvassers, who were later joined by the Newport board.

The campaign is under investigation by Attorney General Peter Neronha’s office as well as the Rhode Island State Police.

Matos held a press conference last week where she said she would see the campaign through “to the very end.”