After Fritchey filed, the case moved to what they call a record review. That’s the mind-numbing process where representatives from both sides sit around a computer screen while a clerk from the board of elections compares signatures on the nominating petitions to the signatures on voter registration cards. If the clerk thinks the signatures don’t match, or if the address isn’t in the ward, she recommends that they be stricken.
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As more than one lawyer has explained to me, it doesn’t matter why the signatures are different so long as the voter swears that he signed the original nominating petitions. “A sworn, notarized affidavit is what we call prima facie evidence,” says one election-law attorney, who’d rather not be named because he has friends on both sides of the debate. “It’s evidence that’s established as a fact unless it’s rebutted. But the hearing officer isn’t rebutting the evidence. She’s changing the issue.”
Fair enough. But if the board’s going to keep on making rulings like this one, I suggest we do away with the time, money, and inconvenience of elections altogether. Let’s just give the oath of office to any candidate Kasper represents.
