Election officials in Rhode Island found the signatures of several dead voters from the state on nomination papers submitted to authorities on behalf of GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, The Rhode Island Current reports.
The state’s deputy director of elections Miguel Nunez said he was notified by the staff of the Warwick Board of Canvassers of “several deceased voters on the nomination papers submitted on behalf of presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.”
Canvassers have also invalidated an “unusually high” number of signatures on Ramaswamy nomination papers in Coventry, Hopkinton and Providence counties.
“Please be vigilant when processing forms collected by these individuals, and contact me if you believe any contain a pattern of fraudulent signatures,” Nunez said in email to canvassers on Wednesday.
Tricia McLaughlin, Ramaswamy’s campaign spokesperson told the Boston Globe that an employee of Ground Game Political Solutions LLC, a Missouri-based outside vendor they hired to collect signatures, intentionally used the names of deceased voters.
“We’ve never had an issue with them before. We were surprised,” McLaughlin said, adding that the employee has been fired.
Candidates have until 4 p.m. Thursday to submit a minimum 1,000 signatures to local boards of canvassers to appear in the ballot.
