City police have opened an investigation into alleged forged signatures on independent nominating petitions witnessed by City Council candidate Samantha Guerra, according to the Times-Union. Saratoga Springs police spokesman Robert Jillson, as well as State Police, acting as the assisting agency, said they couldn’t discuss the investigation or if it involved anyone other than Guerra, who is running for commissioner of accounts. The petition signatures in question, which were for all seven Republican candidates, were meant to secure a third line (Saratoga United) on November's ballot.
In a press release, SSDC Chair Pat Tuz noted that
Saratoga Springs Democratic Committee Chairperson Pat Tuz filed an ethics complaint last week against Republican-endorsed mayoral candidate Heidi Owen West and her allies in the GOP. The complaint letter and the attached exhibits can be found at the link below.
“It is sad to see Ms. West and her colleagues in the Republican Party following the same old Trump Republican playbook of negative campaigning, big lies, and false attacks against Ron Kim,” Tuz said. “Saratogians deserve a Mayor who will tell the truth, not spread big lies for political gain.”
We are pleased to announce that League of Women Voters and Saratoga TODAY debates are upcoming and most opposition candidates have agreed to join our Row A candidates in the forums.
In a press conference on September 14, Row A candidate for Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran presented examples of election petitions submitted by his opponent, Samantha Guerra, in which signatures do not match what is on Board of Election records. “These are blocked lettered, handwritten, not signatures," Moran said according to the Times-Union. "They appear to be written by the same exact person. We secured the problematic signatures (on file) from the Board of Elections. … We can see clearly these are not the same signatures.”
If elected Mayor, Row A candidate Ron Kim would push to implement a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all city employees. “We have to take these steps to make sure we conquer this pandemic because it’s clearly not good for our economy,” Kim told the Daily Gazette.