Katie Castellani
State House News Service
Republican lieutenant governor hopeful Anne Manning Martin is appealing the State Ballot Law Commission's decision that kicked her off the primary ballot over allegedly fraudulent signatures.
On Wednesday, Manning Martin told the News Service that she filed her appeal in Essex County Superior Court. In the appeal, which the News Service obtained from Manning Martin, her sister and attorney Mary Ellen Manning called the commission's decision "manifestly unjust." She also said it "was arbitrary and capricious and was the result of an amalgam of intentional legal errors designed specifically to prevent Plaintiff from ballot access and running for office as a candidate in the Republican Primary for Lt. Governor."
Even if the court finds the commission didn't make any legal or procedural errors, Manning said commissioners made arithmetic errors and that she exceeded the 10,000 certified signature requirement by at least 50 to 100 signatures.
Shawn Oliver, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor, and Democratic Party Executive Director Adam Roof filed similar complaints alleging Manning Martin had filed fraudulent nomination signatures and didn't get the necessary 10,000 certified signatures to appear on the ballot. The complaints were considered as one on a motion Roof filed on behalf of Democrats and the Oliver committee.
On June 26, the commission ruled the complainants met the burden of proof and sustained their challenges to 1,279 of the Manning Martin's 10,692 submitted nomination signatures.
Manning also contended the objections should be dismissed because of a lack of evidence, mainly because there was no live testimony from voters whose signatures were in question. She said this is the first time the commission sustained an objection without several pieces of evidence including: live testimony from witnesses confirming their signatures were forged; testimony from a handwriting expert offering an opinion that the signatures were forged; affidavits "disavowing" the signatures; and signees' handwriting samples to compare to the signatures in question.
"The [commission] intentionally departed from all legal precedents to rule against Plaintiff to deny her ballot access in violation not only of legal precedent, but also of her constitutional right to ballot access," Manning said.
Manning Martin's signature collector Joe Bronske was deposed and invoked his Fifth Amendment right in response to all questions surrounding whether he forged signatures and copied from a Republican voter list. Bronske said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right if he were called to testify, according to Oliver attorney Dan Winslow. In its decision, the commission said that given Bronske was likely the one who collected the signatures in question it would take an "adverse inference" against him as a result of his refusal to answer questions.