May 27, 2016 12:07 PM UTC

BREAKING: Lawsuit Filed To Disqualify Jon Keyser

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE #3: The quote of the day goes to attorney Mark Grueskin, from this Denver Post story:

He rejected the Keyser camp’s assertion about the lawsuit’s motive. “If I had to defend forgery and fraud, I would probably try to deflect the issue to anything else, too,” he said.

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UPDATE #2: The Aurora Sentinel’s Chris Harrop:

The lawsuit — brought by Marcy Cochran, Jonathan Royce and Michael Cerbo and filed in Denver District County Court — alleges that at least 60 signatures collected for Keyser in the 1st Congressional District that were accepted as valid by Williams’ office appear to be forged…

Additionally, the lawsuit argues that because petition circulator Maureen Moss — who is accused of forging signatures on petitions for Keyser — “falsely swore” that each signature was from the person it purported to be, all 178 accepted signatures collected by Moss should be ruled invalid. If the court were to invalidate those signatures, Keyser’s total signatures in the 1st Congressional District would fall to 1,342, also below the legal threshold for sufficiency.

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UPDATE: Plaintiffs have a new list of sixty alleged forged signatures for Jon Keyser, dramatically increasing the number of signatures in question and mathematically calling into question Keyser’s qualification for the ballot. Because ballots for the June 28th Primary are already being prepared, Keyser can’t technically be removed from the ballot; however, a judge could still rule that any votes Keyser receives should not be counted.

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Big news in the Jon Keyser petition fraud controversy breaking now via multiple sources:

BREAKING: #Denver7 reports on #cosen forged signatures repeatedly mentioned in lawsuit vs @ColoSecofState abt @Jon_Keyser being on ballot.

— Marshall Zelinger (@7Marshall) May 27, 2016

Just In: More #cosen drama as lawyer files suit over @Jon_Keyser petitions. Exibit D is brutal #copolitics pic.twitter.com/TkTeusax14

— Joe St. George (@JoeStGeorge) May 27, 2016

We were forwarded the court filing, read it here. The summary reads:

In the implementation of a democracy, there may be no more patently offensive concept than fraud in the election process. Where election officials are not empowered to detect fraud or are simply overwhelmed and cannot do so, it becomes incumbent upon the courts to provide a forum to address such fraud and protect the electoral process. This is as true in the petition process as it is for any other aspect of an election. “If we do not hold in this way, we shall be compelled to say that, if a petition with a sufficient number of names on its face valid should be laid before the secretary of state, it could not be successfully attacked, even though every name were forged and every affidavit attached to it were false.” Elkins v. Milliken, 249 P. 655, 657 (Colo. 1926) (invoking powers as a court of equity).

Not every name has been forged on the petitions that are the subject matter of this litigation, and not every affidavit attached to them is false. But so many forged signatures and false affidavits were filed with and accepted by the Secretary of State to result in an unwarranted placement of Jon Keyser on the primary ballot for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. Additionally, the Secretary’s failure to issue a Statement of Sufficiency as to the Keyser petitions frustrates the ability of any eligible elector to challenge Keyser’s petitions.

As a result, this action seeks to ensure votes will not be counted for one candidate whose placement on the ballot is a function of fraud in the petitioning process. Alternatively, this action seeks an order that the Secretary issue a Statement of Sufficiency as required by statute.

Never a dull moment in this insane Senate race, dear readers.