Earlier in the month, I wrote about claims that petition circulators for an initiative to end racial discrimination (including affirmative action) at the state level used deceit to collect signatures.
I quoted from the complaint sent by Chloe Johnson to the Secretary of State: “… I was approached by a petition circulator who asked me to sign a petition that would end discrimination in Colorado… I questioned this petitioner knowing that we already had laws to prevent this but he told me that they would no longer be effective in the following months.”
I noted that, from three formal complaints and various news reports, Johnson offered the “single example of somebody who claims to have signed a petition after hearing deceitful claims from a petition circulator.”
Now, it turns out, Johnson was not eligible to sign the petition, because she was not registered to vote.
FaceTheState reports:
A Democrat state legislative aide who had claimed to be a victim of voter fraud saw her complaint dismissed after state officials learned that she was not a registered voter.
On February 26, Chloe Johnson filed a complaint with Secretary of State Mike Coffman’s office alleging that she was tricked into supporting Amendment 46, also known as the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative, a ballot effort designed to end race and gender preferences in government hiring, education, and contracting. The complaint was formally dismissed by the state’s Office of Administrative Courts because Johnson never registered to vote.
“I wasn’t a registered elector at the time, so they dismissed my case,” said Johnson. “I thought I was registered and that I registered last year when I turned 18.” …
Johnson claims that she signed the petition because she believes in “preventing discrimination anywhere,” but that after signing it and during the course of her legislative internship with Rep. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, she became outraged when she learned that the initiative would not “end discrimination,” but was “in fact a petition for anti-affirmative action.” …
Upset by this revelation, Johnson says she called the office of Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, and requested that her name be removed from the petition. She was instructed to contact Coffman’s office about the matter, which she did, leading her to subsequently file a complaint.
So, given that Johnson’s claim is bunk, and given that affirmative action is a type of discrimination, I have yet to hear a single, credible, first-hand account of someone who claims to have signed the petition after being deceived.
And this was a story worthy of the attention of the mighty New York Times?
If there is a real problem here, then surely someone can point me to actual evidence showing a problem. I will be happy to post an update just as soon as somebody does that.