CO-Sen: Jon Keyser had a little problem: The former state representative got knocked off the Republican primary ballot for failing to submit a sufficient number of valid signatures. But he solved that issue by getting a court to agree that his glitches were merely technical in nature and thereby restore his ballot spot. Now, however, Jon Keyser has a much bigger problem: Pamela Niemczyk, a Republican voter who signed a petition for another candidate, former Colorado State University athletic director Jack Graham, says that her signature was forged on one of Keyser's petitions. Yeah, not good.
The alleged fraud was first uncovered by a progressive advocacy group called ProgressNow Colorado, which says it conducted only a "cursory review" of "just a sample" of Keyser's petitions. In its brief analysis, though, ProgressNow adds that it found other signatures in Keyser's submissions that were duplicates of Graham's; under Colorado law, voters can only sign one petition, and if they sign more than one, that signature is valid only for the candidate who filed his petitions first—in this case, Graham.
The secretary of state's office says it's reviewing why it failed to catch the fake Niemczyk signature but also says that Keyser will remain on the ballot, thanks to that court ruling ordering him back on. It's therefore not clear what might happen if more problems are discovered with Keyser's signatures, but it would look awful—both for Keyser and the secretary of state—if he were permitted to keep his ballot line should he once again fall below the minimum signature threshold.
Meanwhile, two other candidates who also got bounced from the ballot, rich guy Robert Blaha and former Aurora City Councilor Ryan Frazier, are both in court this week in an attempt to overturn the secretary of state's decision in each of their cases. However, their signature problems sound worse than Keyser's were—at least, version one of Keyser's problems. For Blaha and Frazier, at least, we should get a verdict soon. Keyser's woes may yet linger.