11 signature gatherers charged with forging signatures for Utah candidates

ST. GEORGE — Eleven people were charged across three counties Monday with forging signatures as part of a signature-gathering process to get candidates on Utah's 2024 primary election ballot.

In Salt Lake County's 3rd District Court, Robert Randall Edwards, 35, of Riviera Beach, Florida, and Denton Williams, 25, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, were charged with multiple counts of forgery, a third-degree felony.

In Washington County's 5th District Court, Sakura Jordan, 43, of Missouri City, Texas and Phyllif D. Karpeh, 21, of Lilburn, Georgia Arkemi Robinson, 49, of New Orleans and Joseph Elias Wilde, 19, of St. George were charged with multiple counts of forgery, a third-degree felony; Axel John-Anthony Burt, 22 of Pleasant Grove was charged with multiple counts of violation of certificate of nomination procedures, a class A misdemeanor; Colton Louis Drake, 23, of Vancouver, Washington; and Rocko John Huntsman, 20, of Toquerville, Washington County, were charged with multiple counts of forgery, a third-degree felony, and violation of certificate of nomination procedures, a class A misdemeanor.

In Utah County's 4th District Court, Kevin, W. Jeong, 22, was charged with four counts of forgery and violation of certificate of nomination procedures, while Benson Tohikoula Angilau, 29, of Taylorsville, was charged with nine counts of forgery and communications fraud, third-degree felonies.

Last year, each defendant was hired by a company "to ask voters to sign their names on a petition in support of placing a candidate on the ballot for the 2024 primary election in Utah," according to charging documents. Court documents for most of those charged do not state if they were hired by the same company, if they were seeking to get signatures for the same candidate or if that candidate ended up making it onto the ballot. Charging documents for five people indicate they were hired by a company called Gathering, Inc.

Huntsman said he was paid per signature he collected and also received "weekly, and monthly bonuses based on his volume of work," charging documents state.

"(He) admitted to allowing other people to sign the petition for other voters," the charges allege. "(He) estimated that 30 to 50 signatures on the nomination petitions he circulated were signed by a voter's family member rather than the voter. He did this on each of the three petitions he circulated, for a total of 90 to 150 signatures.

"He stated that he forged signatures so he could make more money," the charges state. "He obtained the voter information from the app provided by his employer. This information included voter names and addresses. (Huntsman) explained that he forged voter signatures by looking at a signature from one candidate's nomination petition and copying it onto the signature page of another candidate's nomination petition. (He) stated that he forged 30 signatures on each of the three petitions he circulated."

Drake told investigators that he "made the mistake of asking for people to sign for (their) spouse which was as high as 40% of (his) signatures," according to charging documents.

In Utah, candidates have two paths to the primary election ballot: winning over a majority of party delegates in a caucus convention or collecting the required number of signatures from active registered voters.

During last year's primary election, Gov. Spencer Cox used Gathering, Inc. to gather signatures, a company the Cox for Governor campaign says was hired by several members of Utah's congressional delegation, numerous legislative candidates, and Cox's Republican opponent in the 2020 gubernatorial race.

"The total number of signatures submitted by the Cox campaign far exceeded the state requirement of 28,000. In the verification process, some signatures were disqualified by the Davis County clerk for various reasons including signature verification," Cox campaign manager Matt Lusty said in a statement Monday.

"The attorney general's office should be applauded for its actions today, and those employed by this company or any other that engaged in this behavior should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The governor is also appreciative of recent legislative efforts to further strengthen trust in our elections, including the work done in this year's session to increase transparency and enhance protections to the candidate signature-gathering process," Lusty said.

Prosecutors say Karpeh worked in Washington and Iron counties.

"In order to do her work, (Karpeh) received nomination petition 'packets.' The packets contained five lined pages for voters to write their names, addresses, ages and signatures. The cover sheet of the packet included the candidate's name," the charges state.

The last page of each packet was a "circulator verification" form, which was signed by Karpeh to verify she had watched each individual sign their name on the petition. The packets were then turned over to the Utah Lieutenant Governor's Office. Karpeh turned in 16 nomination petition packets.

"Of the 16 packets (Karpeh) turned in, only 11 were checked to determine the validity of the voter signatures in them. Of the 383 signatures in the 11 packets checked, only 182 voter signatures were deemed valid. Seventy-seven signatures — approximately 20% — did not match the signatures on file with the statewide voter registration database," the charges allege.

Charging documents for many of the others have similar probable cause statements.

Angilau turned in 48 packets with more than 2,000 signatures. "Of the 2,243 voter names and signatures (Angilau) submitted, only 84 signatures matched the voter's official signature and were deemed valid. A couple signatures were illegible, and 11 signatures were from unregistered residents. The remaining signatures, 2,146, did not match the voters' signature on file with election officials," the charges state.

Robinson turned in 10 petition packets, eight of which were checked. "Of the 212 signatures in the (eight) packets checked, only 43 voter signatures were deemed valid (while) 131 signatures, approximately 62%, did not match the signatures on file with the election officials," according to charging documents.

Jordan turned in four petition packets. "Of the 115 signatures in the four packets, only 32 voter signatures were deemed valid. 62 signatures, approximately 49%, did not match the signatures on file with the election officials," the charges state.

Williams turned in four packets. "Of the 99 signatures in the four packets (Williams) turned in, only four voter signatures were deemed valid. 81 signatures, approximately 80%, did not match the signatures on file with the election officials," charging documents state.

Jeong turned in five packets. "Of the 176 signatures in the packets (Jeong) turned in, only 71 were valid. Thirty-six signatures, approximately 20%, did not match the signatures on file with the election officials," according to the charges. "In an interview, (Jeong) admitted that he often times had a spouse sign for the other spouse. He stated he did so to 'kill two birds with one stone.' (Jeong) stated that he worked alone."

Edwards turned in 15 packets. "Of the 15 packets (Edwards) turned in, only 10 were checked to determine the validity of the voter signatures in them. Of the 249 signatures in the 10 packets checked, only 45 voter signatures were deemed valid. Sixth-eight signatures, approximately 27%, did not match the signatures on file with the election officials," the charges state.

Investigators with the Utah Attorney General's Office contacted many of the voters whose signatures appeared on the petitions but did not match the signatures on file and several "confirmed that they had not signed the petition they had purportedly signed," the charges state.

Prosecutors also noted in the charging documents of most of the defendants that the remaining signatures on their petitions "were deemed invalid either because they were signatures of unregistered voters, voters not registered with the candidate's same political party, voters who had already signed for another candidate in the same race, voters who had previously signed for the candidate in (another) nomination petition packet, or voters who lived outside of the appropriate political boundaries" or in some cases "a handful were deemed invalid because they were unreadable."

Last June, the Washington County Attorney's Office announced it was investigating after Gathering Inc. came under scrutiny while gathering signatures for state Sen. Don Ipson, R-St. George, due to irregularities. Ipson ended up qualifying for the ballot through the Republican county convention since he didn't receive enough verified signatures. Gathering Inc. was also used by Gov. Spencer Cox and U.S. Senate candidate Brad Wilson.

In a brief statement released Monday, the Utah Attorney General's Office said the Utah Elections Office, the Office of the State Auditor, and the Washington County Clerk's Office referred had referred their cases to the attorney general.

Contributing: Bridger Beal-Cvetko

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