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SALT LAKE CITY — An Arizona man is facing criminal charges accusing him of improperly paying for signature gathering during Utah's 2023 special 2nd Congressional District election.
Timothy Francis Mooney, 62, of Cave Creek, Arizona, was charged Wednesday in Utah's 3rd District Court with two counts of violation of certificate of nomination procedures, a class A misdemeanor. Utah's election code prohibits paying signature gatherers based directly on the gross number of signatures submitted to a filing official.
"Evidence shows that Mooney agreed to pay $16 per gross signature, rather than by an hourly rate or per verified signature," according to a statement from the Utah Attorney General's Office.
Mooney was hired in June to help gather signatures for one of the candidates vying for a spot on the primary ballot to replace former Rep. Chris Stewart. The charging documents don't identify the candidate for whom Mooney was working and witnesses are identified only by initials.
The charges allege Mooney entered into oral contracts with two signature gatherers — identified as D.M. and G.S. — between June 12 and June 14. Mooney "agreed to pay D.M. $16 per gross signature gathered if the validity rate of those signatures remained at 80% or greater" and agreed to pay G.S. "$14 to $16 per signature gathered with no validity rate requirement to gather 5,000 signatures," according to the charging documents.
Mooney then signed a written contract with D.M. on June 29, according to the charges. He paid D.M. $5,000 on June 14 as a deposit, then paid an additional $53,452 on July 12, one week after the filing deadline, charging documents state.
G.S. later renegotiated his agreement to be paid $16 per signature, and ultimately collected 7,776 signatures that were submitted.
"Defendant paid D.M. and G.S. for the gross signatures obtained before receiving information from the Utah Lieutenant Governor's Office that verified which signatures were valid," the charges state.
Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson requested an investigation into evidence of a violation of election code earlier this year, according to the attorney general's office. An investigation of the individuals who received payment to gather signatures is ongoing.
Mooney is a longtime political consultant who has helped candidates, citizen initiatives and constitutional amendments qualify for the ballot "in nearly every state," according to his LinkedIn account.
