Fraud Leads Judge Hopeful To Quit

New Haven won’t have a Democratic primary for probate judge after all, now that one candidate has dropped out amid revelations of ballot fraud.

That candidate, Americo Carchia, was in the process of submitting a letter Thursday afternoon to City Clerk Michael Smart formally withdrawing from the Sept. 12 primary. That leaves only party-endorsed candidate Clifton Graves Jr., who will now face Republican Melissa Papantones in the Nov. 7 general election for the open seat.

Carchia dropped out of the race a day after the Independent reported that his campaign forged the signatures of registered voters on petitions to qualify for the primary ballot. (Scroll down in this story to read the original article, including examples of cases of forgery.)

But the controversy is not over. The State Elections Enforcement Commission has received a formal complaint from Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans about the fraud. And in withdrawing from the race, Carchia put the blame squarely on Yellow Dog Strategies, the Bristol consulting firm he hired to gather the signatures. And he volunteered to help the state investigate the company.

When asked in an interview Thursday why he is dropping out, Carchia said: ​“I cannot change the actions of the people who assisted me in gathering those names.”

He was asked what his own role was in that process. Besides hiring the firm, did he personally accompany any of the firm’s hired Waterbury-based signature-gatherers whose fishy petitions are now the subject of the controversy?

He responded that he did help ferry them around New Haven. But he asserted that he knew nothing of any forgeries or other rule-breaking.

“I moved some of the kids in my car. I was trying to coordinate with them. They were going to areas where they could gather names appropriately. Yeah, I did have these guys in the vehicle with me. I moved them from one place to another for about five minutes. It was in my personal car. So it wasn’t like I had all these people with me. All I did was move them from one place to another and I suggested buildings and areas where they should go.”

In a press release announcing his withdrawal from the race, Carchia depicted himself as a ​“victim” of Yellow Dog.

“Both I and a number of individuals from New Haven were the victims of what appears to have been fraudulent activities undertaken by Yellow Dog Strategy,” he wrote.

“Even if I were to come out victorious in the primary, the legitimacy of my victory would always be brought into question. The Judge of Probate’s actions, character, trust, integrity and legitimacy must never be in question and the public must have complete faith and confidence that someone who possesses all of those qualities has been rightfully elected to the position and who they have complete confidence in when they appear in the court.”

He apologized to people whose signatures were forged on petitions and declared himself ​“fully prepared to voluntarily cooperate” if the SEEC launches an investigation. (The SEEC next meets in September, when it can take up the complaint.)

City Clerk Smart said ballots have already been printed for the Sept. 12 primary. So Carchia’s name will appear on them. But any votes cast for him will not be counted, confirmed secretary of the state spokesman Kevin Bronson.

Yellow Dog founder Cole Haywood referred a reporter to the firm’s attorney, Chris Stratton.

“We intend to cooperate with the SEEC investigation,” Stratton said. Asked about Carchia’s depiction of being a ​“victim” of Yellow Dog, Stratton responded: ​“We intend to let our communications with the SEEC speak for themselves.”

Carchia was asked Thursday if he plans to run for probate judge next year, when there will be another election. (This year’s victor will fill out the last year of the four-year term of the current judge, Jack Keyes, who’s retiring.)

“I have not begun to contemplate that,” Carchia responded. ​“I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here. I have not had an opportunity to focus on that.”

Following is an earlier article with details of the fraud:

Judge Hopeful Submits Forged Signatures

Americo Carchia Wednesday said he’s considering whether to end his campaign for probate judge and vowed to cooperate with any potential criminal investigations after learning that he had submitted petitions with forged signatures to qualify for the Sept. 12 Democratic primary ballot.

Carchia turned in petitions on Aug. 9 with the names and alleged signatures of over 2,000 registered New Haven Democratic voters putatively supporting having his name appear on the Sept. 12 primary ballot against party-endorsed candidate Clifton Graves Jr. He needed 1,872 certified signatures to qualify; the Registrar of Voters office found 1,982 signatures to be valid — based on the names and addresses and birth dates listed matching those of registered Democrats. So Carchia made the ballot.

One of those signatures belonged to Andrew Weiss, a Yale student listed as living in Yale’s Arnold Hall. Weiss told the Independent by email Tuesday that he never signed a petition. In fact, he wasn’t even in New Haven during the two-week period at the end of July and beginning of August when the petitions were collected. ​“I was in Japan,” he wrote.

Another signature belonged to Rae Ellen Bichell. Her address was listed as Yale’s Welch Hall —where she used to live when she was a Yale undergraduate. Bichell, too, stated that she was nowhere near New Haven this summer and never signed a petition. ​“I haven’t lived in New Haven since I graduated in 2012,” she wrote to the Independent. ​“I have lived in Colorado for the last year. The last time I was in new haven was for one weekend in early 2016.”

“That’s interesting,” Joanna Lee wrote, when informed her name appears on a Carchia petition along with a scribbled signature at a Yale Saybrook College address. ​“The last time I was in New Haven was in May and I wasn’t there for either July or August.”

Grace Paine? Her name also appears with a signature based on a Saybrook College address. ​“I was not in New Haven,” she informed the Independent. ​“I graduated undergrad in May and haven’t been back to New Haven since. I definitely don’t remember signing a petition of that sort in person.”

Those four alleged signers’ names all appear on a single page of Carchia petitions (pictured). A woman from Waterbury collected those signatures on behalf of the Carchia campaign.

That same woman submitted eight pages of petitions for the campaign. Each petition has a capacity of 20 names. She was one of five Waterbury petitioners who turned in pages with signatures for Carchia. They submitted a total of 59 sheets, according to a review of records on file at the City Clerk’s Office. Many of those pages had similar patterns of either the names of on-campus Yale students or clusters of voters in one location with scribbled signatures alongside names printed in apparently identical handwriting.

Carchia said Wednesday that the Waterbury petition-gatherers all worked for a new Bristol-based political consulting firm he hired to help with the signature-gathering process, called Yellow Dog Strategies. The company formed in April. It helps candidates with ​“PAC Fundraising, Traditional and New Media press outreach, Social Media Organizing, Political Campaign, Strategy, FEC Compliance, Grassroots Organizing, Salsa Labs, NGP, VAN/Votebuilder, Vocus,” according to the LInkedIn page of founder Cole Haymond. Haymond declined comment Wednesday.

Carchia, meanwhile, was at the 200 Orange St. municipal office building seeking answers. He had learned the day before that someone had filed a complaint about his petitions with the State Elections Enforcement Commission.

Democratic Registrar of Voters Shannel Evans Wednesday confirmed that she had filed the complaint with the SEEC after speaking with voters listed on the petitions who said they, too, had never signed. (SEEC spokesman Joshua Foley said the agency can’t confirm or deny receipt of such a complaint until the full commission meets and votes on whether to launch an investigation.)

Carchia was shaken as he received photocopies of all his petitions from the City Clerk’s office before visiting the Registrar of Voters Office to learn more about the approval process.

“I can’t be more numb right now. Look at these!” he exclaimed.

“I’m seething inside.”

He said someone who gives him political advice — he said he couldn’t remember who — had steered him to Yellow Dog Strategies. He said he trusted that the company knew what it was doing. ​“It was difficult” to find enough help to gather so many signatures in just a two-week window, Carchia said. He said he had no knowledge of corners being cut by the consultants.

Yellow Dog handed him the completed petitions on Aug. 9, the deadline for turning them in to the Registrar of Voters office, Carchia said. ​“We made copies and filed them. These guys were supposed to have everything certified and done. When I got them, my presumption was everything” was in order.

On top of the Waterbury crew, which was responsible for about half of the signatures Carchia turned in, New Haven volunteers also circulated petitions for Carchia to help him make the ballot. ​“If this is all true,” Carchia said, ​“I feel like I’ve let down everybody” in town who ​“worked so hard for me.”

Democratic Registrar Evans said that her office’s job was to review names listed on petitions with addresses, dates of birth, and party registration to make sure they match current records.

All the petitions include the following warning in bold capital letters at the top of the front page, as required by Chapter 153 Section 9 – 404b of the Connecticut General Statutes: ​“It is a crime to sign this petition in the name of another person without legal authority to do so.” State law classifies it as a misdemeanor for to ​“fraudulently sign, attest or file a false certificate.”

The State Elections and Enforcement Commission also has legal authority to levy fines for violating state campaign statutes.

As he left 200 Orange St. Wednesday morning with copies of petitions in tow, Carchia said he wants to analyze them before deciding whether or not to end his campaign. To withdraw, a candidate must file a letter with the local town clerk, according to Secretary of the State office spokesperson Kevin Bronson. If the letter arrives after ballots have been printed, any votes cast for the withdrawn candidate will not count.

Carchia promised to work alongside law enforcement if a criminal case ensues.

“I want to get to the bottom of it,” he said. ​“If there’s something wrong, we have to make sure the person is prosecuted. If they call me in, I’m willing to participate in any way necessary.

“For 22 years, all I’ve done is make sure people get what they deserve. I don’t want to be on the ballot if it wasn’t done right.”

A spokesman for the Graves probate campaign, city government youth services chief Jason Bartlett, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon attacking Carchia for widespread errors and alleged fraud in his petitions and arguing that ​“he knew or should have known about the extensive irregularities of his paid representatives.”