PHOENIX – When Denisha Mitchell was asked why she filled out paperwork to serve as an Arizona elector for the independent presidential candidate Cornel West, her first response was “What?!” Her second: What's an elector?
“I was shocked and surprised by it all. I didn't even know what an elector was," Mitchell told The Associated Press on Friday. "The crazy thing is it was all forged. None of it was my handwriting. It was definitely not my signature. My email was wrong, my address was wrong."
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Mitchell's case is the latest example of dubious tactics used in an effort to qualify West, a left-wing academic, for the ballot in states across the U.S. It's also among the more egregious. It's an effort that West himself apparently knows nothing about. His campaign did not immediately respond for comment Friday evening.
“If you produce information that is a false on filing to a government entity in Arizona, you’ve committed a felony. It’s just not that complicated,” said Dennis K. Burke, a former U.S. Attorney in Arizona, who also served as a chief deputy in the state attorney general’s office.
But as the presidential election enters a critical three-month period, there are efforts around the country to subvert the integrity of the ballot, many of them coming from a collection of conservative activists and Republican-aligned operatives pushing West's candidacy.
Republicans and their allies have worked to get West on the ballot in Arizona, Wisconsin, Virginia, North Carolina, Nebraska, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Maine.
Their hope is West will serve as a spoiler candidate, boosting former President Donald Trump's chance of winning in November by siphoning liberal support away from the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, in battleground states that could be decided by just a few thousand votes.
While it is not clear who is behind the effort — and there is no indication that Trump's campaign is directly involved — one thing is certain: It's not West, who has not been actively campaigning and whose presidential committee, records show, was almost $17,000 in debt at the end of June.
Since discovering she was signed up to be an elector, Mitchell has signed an affidavit that will be submitted to state authorities next week attesting that she never agreed to serve as an elector and never signed her name to a filing. In Arizona, all independent presidential campaigns are required to submit filings showing that they have a slate of electors who will cast their Electoral College votes for a presidential candidate.
But her story is not the only unusual one among the slate of electors for West.
One of them, Elizabeth Rothgeb, pleaded guilty to manslaughter after accepting a plea deal stemming from the killing of her then-husband with an ax in 1998. She spent 10 years in prison and was released on Christmas Eve 2010, according to online records from the state prison system.
Rothgeb, who could not be reached for comment, is a registered Republican, as are two other electors for West, voting records show. Two additional electors listed in the state filings are not registered to vote at the addresses provided for them, records show.
As for Mitchell, she's says she is unsure who filled out the paperwork in her name.
She and her husband were both enthusiastic supporters of Bernie Sanders and were drawn to West's progressive message earlier this year. They later took jobs gathering petition signatures to get an initiative on the ballot that would raise the wages of tipped workers. They soured on West's candidacy when they read that Republican-aligned operatives were working to get him on the ballot to play spoiler.
“We weren’t for the Republican griminess, so we stopped pushing him,” she said.
Her former employer, a signature gathering contractor called Wells Marketing, a mysterious Missouri limited liability company, is leading the effort to get West on the ballot in Arizona. The company did not respond to a message seeking comment at a phone number listed for it.
“I don’t know who did it. But because I worked for Wells (Marketing), they do have my information,” said Mitchell.
The company is closely affiliated with Mark Jacoby — a brother-in-law of a Wells Marketing official, according to social media posts — who was also listed on state documents as the employer of one signature gatherer working to get West on the ballot in the state.
Jacoby is a Republican-aligned operative from California with a longstanding reputation for using deceptive tactics. He was convicted in 2009 of voter registration fraud, court records show.
In 2020, Jacoby worked to gather signatures to place the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, on the ballot. Ye’s quixotic presidential campaign was widely viewed by Democrats as an effort to dilute Joe Biden’s popularity with Black voters.
Jacoby’s firm, Let the Voters Decide, was investigated for using questionable signature gathering tactics during a 2020 petition drive in Michigan that sought to roll back some of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s emergency powers during the coronavirus pandemic. No charges came of the investigation.
He was accused in 2008 of tricking voters into registering with the California Republican Party by telling them they were signing an initiative to strengthen penalties for child molesters, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Jacoby did not answer a call at a number listed to him and his voicemail inbox was full.
Similarly unusual efforts have unfolded in other states, as well.
In April, The Washington Post reported pro-Trump activist Scott Presler was gathering signatures for West outside a Trump rally in North Carolina. In a video posted online, Presler described West, an academic, as a “far-left Marxist” who “if we get him on the ballot he could take a percentage point away” from Biden.
But Republican involvement in getting West and his Justice For All party on the ballot in North Carolina ran far deeper.
At the beginning of June, disclosures show, West had spent just $2,400 this year to gather the signatures needed to qualify for the ballot in states across the U.S.
But then Justice For All submitted well over the roughly 13,800 signatures needed. State government emails obtained by The Associated Press show current and former employees of Blitz Canvassing, a Republican firm that earned millions of dollars doing work for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, helped West pull off the feat. The emails, previously reported by NBC News, show the employees affiliated with Blitz Canvassing were the designated representatives to pick up and drop off petitions for West’s campaign.
Ballot access hijinks are nothing new in Arizona, where elections are often decided by fractions of a percentage point.
This year, a leader of the conservative group Turning Point Action resigned from the organization and dropped his bid for reelection to the Arizona House of Representatives after he was accused of forging signatures on his nominating petitions.
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Slodysko reported from Washington.