{"id":414,"date":"2026-05-15T15:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=414"},"modified":"2026-05-15T15:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:05:09","slug":"colorado-school-choice-canvassers-forged-ballot-petition-signatures-state-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=414","title":{"rendered":"Colorado school choice canvassers forged ballot petition signatures, state says"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Two people who worked for a Front Range political canvassing company are charged with forging signatures on petitions used to get a Colorado school choice amendment on the 2024 general election ballot, the state attorney general\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

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A statewide grand jury indicted Cherrell Long of Nevada and Martin Arellano of Texas on three felony counts \u2014 attempting to influence a public servant, elections forgery and forgery \u2014 and a misdemeanor count of perjury, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said this week.<\/p>\n

According to the indictment, Long and Arellano were independent contractors for Victor\u2019s Canvassing in Colorado Springs and were tasked with gathering signatures for Amendment 80, a school choice measure that Colorado voters rejected in the November 2024 election.<\/p>\n

Long and Arellano are accused of forging signatures on the petitions by signing the names of dead people and voters who had canceled their registrations because they had moved to a different county or out of state.<\/p>\n

A company that reviewed the petition after it was first turned in found that of the 190,000 signatures submitted, 131,000 \u201cappeared to be valid,\u201d which was over the 124,238 signature threshold, the attorney general\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

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But staff at the Colorado Secretary of State\u2019s Office found suspicious signatures during a post-election review because several did not match signatures that the state already had on record, the attorney general\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

Investigators believe Long forged 19 signatures, including those of four dead people, while Arellano is accused of forging six signatures, also including four dead people.<\/p>\n

\u201cPetition circulators who submit fraudulent signatures to the state to put a candidate or initiative on the ballot must be held accountable for their unlawful conduct,\u201d Weiser said in a statement. \u201cWe are committed to protecting our elections and safeguarding the process for petitioning onto the ballot.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Anyone with information about Long or Arellano\u2019s whereabouts should report the information to local law enforcement, state officials said.<\/p>\n

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Two people are charged election fraud related to the 2024 Colorado school choice amendment, the attorney general’s office said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":81,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-and-public-safety","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nColorado school choice canvassers forged ballot petition signatures, state says - Colorado Springs Moverss<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coloradospringsmoverss.com\/?p=414\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Colorado school choice canvassers forged ballot petition signatures, state says - 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