More Mayoral Petition Shenanigans

By Chuck Sudo in News on Dec 3, 2010 3:07PM

More petition troubles for James Meeks, along with fellow mayoral candidates Carol Moseley Braun and Particia Van Pelt-Watkins. A Park Ridge notary public is claiming that his signature was forged on election petitions filed by all three candidates. Meeks, Braun and Watkins filed a combined 1,913 petitions supposedly notarized by Alex Caplan, but the Sun-Times copies of the notary signature doesn't match Caplan's previous signatures of record. Matter of fact, they don't look close.

Wednesday, Aurora notary public Maricela Rodriguez claimed that her signature was forged on petitions filed by Meeks, Braun, Watkins and erstwhile Rahm Emanuel renter Rob Halpin. The four filed a combined 877 petitions allegedly notarized by Rodriguez. Braun and Watkins said their petitions were gathered by Tyrone Tucker. Watkins asked that her petitions be notarized at her office, so Tucker sent a man who identified himself as Caplan do do the honors. Problem is, Caplan is white, the man who came to Watkins's office was black, and no one in Watkins's office thought to ask the man for identification.

Meeks has now gone into major CYA mode and is asking for a criminal investigation into the matter.