Former Indiana Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan is just one of dozens of people who say they didn't sign petitions for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton to appear on the state's 2008 primary ballot and yet their names were approved by the county registration office.
Kernan told the South Bend Tribune that neither the print version of his name nor the signature that appear on the suspect document are anything like his own.
"Not at all," Kernan, owner of the South Bend Silver Hawks minor league.......
......The Tribune reports that the St. Joseph County voter registration office has a Democratic and Republican member who sign off on petition pages submitted for review. However, Republican Linda Silcott was out of the office on bereavement leave on the days the suspected fakes passed through her office.
Silcott's stamped signature is used on the suspect pages while Democrat Pam Brunette signed off on the petitions in her own hand. The Tribune reported that Silcott's deputy, Mary Carrol Ringler, has authority to use the stamp, but she does not recall if she did so, in part because the dates of the forged petitions coincide with her first two weeks in her post.
