October 12, 2008
By CHRISTINA TATU
FRANKFORD -- In response to a petition to recall him from office, Mayor Robert McDowell says some of the signers were paid, some signatures are forgeries and some of the circulators were not registered voters of the township.
"We aren't making an allegation that there was fraud, but there is certainly enough evidence for us to go through the process to see if there was any fraud in securing these petition signatures," said McDowell's attorney Rich Fornaro of Fornaro Francioso LLC in Hamilton, who's seeking to have the petition invalidated.
Fornaro said some signatures were crossed out, others were spelled differently than the names on voter registration forms and some listed conflicting addresses.
"Even if you are not a handwriting expert, you can clearly see a lot of the signatures look the same," he said.
The response, filed Oct. 3, will delay the petition process, said Ed Buzak, attorney for the Committee to Recall Mayor Robert McDowell. If it is alleged that a signature is forged, the judge will need to investigate the claim by interviewing the individuals in question.
"It's a stall tactic," Buzak said.
Fornaro estimated there are about 400 people in question, including those who signed the petition and those who helped circulate it.
Township Clerk Louanne Cular finished verifying the signatures and certified the petition Oct. 3. Of the 1,270 signatures, 1,181 were valid, more than the 947 signatures needed to have a recall placed on the ballot.
The petition was first submitted to Cular Aug. 13, but she rejected it two weeks later, citing a technical error for failing to sequentially number each of the document's sections.
On Sept. 10, the petitioners challenged Cular's decision, but the next day, Cular rejected the challenge, still citing the technical error.
On Sept. 13, petitioners filed a lawsuit asking a judge to order Cular to approve the recall petition and have Sussex County Clerk Erma Gormley place the question on the Nov. 4 ballot or arrange for a special election. At a Sept. 24 hearing with Morristown Superior Court Judge Theodore Bozonelis, it was decided Cular would have to complete verifying the petition's signatures by Oct 3.
Petition organizers, Cular, McDowell and their attorneys will meet with Bozonelis Oct. 20 to discuss how the petition's litigation will proceed.
