Supervisor Candidate Dunn Keeps Mum on Election Fraud Allegations
A township resident called on Trustee Janet Dunn to comment on the recent Michigan State Police investigation alleging election fraud in Macomb during Wednesday's board of trustees meeting.
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Despite allegations of election fraud, supervisor candidate Janet Dunn decided not to respond to public comment challenging her to defend herself during the Sept. 26 Board of Trustees meeting.
The Macomb Daily reported last week that petition signatures for Dunn were at the center of a Michigan State Police investigation. Detectives submitted their findings to the prosecutor’s office, which has yet to comment on whether it will dismiss or pursue a case regarding these allegations. The source of the complaint that led MSP to pursue its investigation is unknown.
Dunn, who defeated incumbent Supervisor Mark Grabow and challenger Charles Missig in the August Republican primary, is expected to take office Nov. 20. As there are no Democrats running for the seat in November, Dunn, who currently serves as a township trustee, is the lone candidate for supervisor.
“I would hope that during the trustee comments, when you have the opportunity, that you will unequivocally state that you personally circulated every petition that had your signature on it. It should be a simple statement to make. At this point in time, only you and the some of the 200 plus residents that signed your petition actually know the truth,” said resident Thomas Christ. “If you personally circulated those petitions, by God, fight to vindicate yourself. But, if you haven’t please do the right thing and end the divisiveness on this issue.”
Christ ran, and lost the township treasurer's post, in the August Republican primary.
Dunn did not respond to Christ – or remark on anything at all – during the open comment session, however, trustee Nancy Nevers did speak in Dunn’s defense.
“We all should wait until we see his (the prosecutor’s) determination. I personally, at that point, believe Mrs. Dunn will be exonerated. I think we are putting the cart before the horse on this issue, I think we should wait for his determination,” she said.
Allegations of election fraud were previously brought against township officials in July.
Macomb Township resident Mark Maiuri filed a lawsuit against the county and Macomb Township clerks that challenged the validity of more than 50 signatures on Dunn's nominating petitions and alleged wrongful denial of a Freedom of Information Act request.
Maiuri claimed he had uncovered "extensive fraud" by means of his own investigation as well as from official handwriting analysis of Dunn's nominating petitions—analysis which was commissioned by John Johnson, a member of then-clerk candidate Cathy Imbronone's campaign staff.
Less than 48 hours after polls closed for the Aug. 7 primary, Maiuri asked the court to dismiss his case.
The Macomb County Circuit Court denied this request as Macomb Township had already filed a counter complaint to defend Clerk Michael Koehs in his offical capacity, according to court documents.
AST
1:50 pm on Thursday, September 27, 2012
If I was a member of the board, especially the member who owns the responsibility to ensure fair, consistent, quantifiable and UN-BIASED elections, I would be quick to defend my department and board practices. As a voter, regardless of the outcome of this investigation, I grow weary of the drama and noise that seems to hover around this current board. Where there is smoke, you can almost always find fire.
Mark Moore
2:25 pm on Thursday, September 27, 2012
Some 1700 absentee ballots did not cast votes for supervisor, clerk or treasurer. The clerks department does not keep track of so called spoiled ballots. Certain candidates won at the polls, but lost the absentee votes or were there really that many? I give the American voter evough intelligence to know how to vote. The fraud by Janet Dunn is only the beginning. Ask the clerk and his election committee gelios, ed Carey what happened to these votes? It's now time for the residents to demand answers. Call, email, go to board meetings. We need to get corruption out of macomb twp.
HappyVoter
11:19 am on Saturday, September 29, 2012
Mark, still clinging to the tired, played out, "well there must be corruption since my candidate lost!" argument? Do you understand how many layers of checking, doublechecking, and triplechecking exist between the township election staff, the volunteer workers, the county workers, and the companies who make the equipment that is designed to guarantee accurate and unbiased election results? Do you really think all of those people are conspiring to deny your candidate a seat at the table?
All of the information you throw out there is available to the public. Go to the county and ask for it, then come back and actually speak with facts in hand. Until then, you can wonder why Eric Smith, a staunch Democrat, has not immediately brought charges against Janet Dunn (or anyone else on the board), who is a Republican. Don't you think that if there were a shred of evidence against her, that he'd jump at the chance? I think what the facts and the record will eventually show is: 1.) There was no election fraud, other than the normal John Johnson antics. 2.) The Maiuri lawsuit will be a big loser and will result in penalties against those involved in filing it (Maiuri, Johnson, the Imbronone coven, etc.). 3.) Eric Smith has enough integrity and professionalism to not allow these small-time schemers to trick him into charging someone with a crime they obviously did not commit.
AST
12:06 pm on Saturday, September 29, 2012
HappyVoter, I really hope that you are not part of those determining the outcome of our elections. Comments such as "Imbronone Coven" indicates a strong bias. Can you separate that while counting/recounting/recounting/double checking ballots, as you state? You clearly have a tie to this process, or you wouldn't be able to describe it so eloquently.
Bottom line, the answer from Dunn should be an easy one. Did she appropriately sign off on her petitions or not?
Shannon
12:26 pm on Saturday, September 29, 2012
From the bottom of the nominating petition, is the "Certificate of Circulator:"
"The undersigned circulator of the above petition asserts that he or she is qualified to circulate this petition and that each signature on the petition was signed in his or her presence; and that, to his or her best knowledge and belief, each signature is the genuine signature of the person purpoting to sign the petition, the person signing the petition was at the time of signing a qualified registered elector of the City or Township listed in the heading of the petition, and the elector was qualified to sign the petition.
WARNING - A CIRCULATOR KNOWINGLY MAKING A FALSE STATEMENT IN THE ABOVE CERTIFICATE, A PERSON NOT A CIRCULATOR WHO SIGNS AS A CIRCULATOR, OR PERSON WHO SIGNS A NAME OTHER THAN HIS OR HER OWN AS CIRCULATOR IS GUILTY OF A MISDEMEANOR."
With such a blatant expression of the rules, I can only imagine that the person who chooses not to follow -- does so because she knows she can get away with it.
Johnny
12:57 pm on Saturday, September 29, 2012
Looks like we won't have any candidates when this is all done. If I recall correctly, Mark Grabow had his petitions sitting out at the Mobil station at 23 & romeo plank, and Charles Missig had his sitting out at Passport Pizza and I'm sure Cathy Imbronone had hers sitting out at her businesses. Grow up everyone, the election is over and you lost...time to accept reality and move on. You can run again in 4 years and bring all of the circus clowns back then to raise all kinds of issues that apparenlty the majority of the residents did not think were actually major issues.
AST
3:44 pm on Saturday, September 29, 2012
Hmmm, bummer that so many false petitions made it through that air-tight election process.