Platte County Presser Alleges Petition Signature Shenanigans

Posting this ahead of more deets coming later in the day . . . We talked/gossiped and hinted about this one on Friday and now we're learning more . . .

TKC caveat . . . Because the story hasn't dropped yet, we're only sharing the EDITED PRESSER because we don't feel like crossing to the nice side of the bridge in order to go to court. 

However . . . 

Many of our suburban friends are getting word about the northland news controversy building momentum. 

For now, and mostly for close readers, here's the word . . .  

Independent Candidates Collected Petition Signatures From Dementia and Alzheimer's Patients in Platte County Care Facilities, Election Filings Show

Campaign manager used her elder-care business to gain access to memory-care residents; a candidate collected signatures from residents averaging 82 years old

PLATTE COUNTY, Mo. — Public records on file with the Board of Elections show that four independent candidates — secured a substantial share of the signatures used to place their names on the November ballot by targeting elderly residents of senior-living and memory-care facilities, including patients being treated for Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

The documents raise serious concerns of elder abuse and the exploitation of some of the most vulnerable residents in the county — people who, in many cases, may not have understood that they were signing legal ballot-access petitions at all.

What the filings show
 

A Tiffany Springs assisted-living facility provides memory care for residents living with Alzheimer's and dementia: Residents of that facility — with an average age of 85 — appear on the independents' petitions. Most of them signed all four candidates' petitions in a single sitting.

The person who swore, under oath, that she personally collected those signatures operates a business in the elder-care field. She did not stop at one facility.

According to her own notarized affidavits filed with the Board of Elections, she collected more than 350 signatures inside four separate senior-care facilities, from residents averaging 83 years old.

A candidate personally collected 84 signatures from 34 senior-facility residents, averaging 82 years old.

In total, at least 350 of the roughly 1,200 signatures filed across the four petitions — nearly one in three — were gathered from inside these senior-care and memory-care facilities.

Did these seniors understand that they were signing petitions to put four candidates on the November ballot? The paperwork cannot answer that question. Their families may want to ask.

A call for investigation

Systematically soliciting legal signatures from residents of Alzheimer's and dementia units — residents averaging well into their 80s — is precisely the kind of conduct that laws against elder abuse and financial exploitation exist to prevent. The fact that the access was obtained through a campaign manager's own elder-care business makes the arrangement more troubling, not less.

A full investigation by the appropriate authorities should be conducted to determine: to what extent did a  campaign manager  leveraged her position as an elder-care consultant to gain entry to these facilities; whether the roughly 350-plus affected residents understood what they were signing and freely consented; and whether these four independent campaigns complied with every provision of Missouri election law in gathering and certifying these signatures. 
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Developing . . .