Philadelphia Blogger: My Name Was Forged on Babette Josephs’ Petition

The signature of noted Philadelphia blogger Duncan Black — also known as Atrios — was allegedly forged on the nominating petitions of former State Rep. Babette Josephs, Keystone Politics reports. Black swore in an affidavit and told Keystone Politics the signature, as well as the one below him listing the same address, is not his.

Keystone Politics explains the deal:

Alisa Snyder is not even registered to vote at Black’s address. In fact, according to Black, “Alisa Snyder lived at the address for a bit but she moved to Boston in June 2012. Still there AFAIK. Certainly was not at address on March 2nd,” but acccording to the petition sheets notarized and submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of State by the Josephs Campaign, Black and Snyder live together and signed at the same time, in the presence of a Josephs campaign petition circulator, on March 2nd.

Nominating petitions are challenged all the time in Philly, and Brian Sims — the current State Rep., who beat Josephs for her seat in 2012 — has filed complaints about 400 signatures on Josephs’ petitions. This is common practice in Pennsylvania, where petitions are challenged extensively pretty much every year. It’s much easier to win an election if you can kick your opponent off the ballot!

Read Simon van Zulen-Wood’s excellent piece on a Philly for Change event at Tattooed Mom’s featuring Sims, Josephs and Mark B. Cohen.