Rhode Island election officials found the names of several dead voters on nomination papers submitted on behalf of Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, local authorities told The Boston Globe Thursday.
The state’s deputy director of elections Miguel J. Nunez wrote an email message to local boards this week saying that an “unusually high” number of signatures for Ramaswamy had been invalidated in Coventry Country.
“Please [be] vigilant when processing forms collected by these individuals, and contact me if you believe any contain a pattern of fraudulent signatures,” Nunez wrote.
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“We have also been notified by the staff of the Warwick Board of Canvassers of several deceased voters on the nomination papers submitted on behalf of presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.”
Boards of canvassers in both Hopkinton and Providence counties also reported a higher percentage of invalid signatures than usual on Ramaswamy’s paperwork—including six dead voters on the paperwork in Providence, according to the Rhode Island Current.
Ramaswamy spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told the Globe that one employee of Ground Game Political Solutions LLC, an Missouri-based outside vendor the campaign used to collect nomination signatures, intentionally used the names of deceased voters. That employee has now been fired, McLaughlin added.
“We’ve never had an issue with them before,” McLaughlin said in an interview Thursday, noting that the vendor also assisted with signature collection in at least four other states and was launching an internal investigation into the situation. “We were surprised.”
The NoLabels party, which is seeking to get on the ballot for the first time in Rhode Island, also found the names of deceased voters on its petition.
The deadline for presidential candidates to submit nomination papers was 4 p.m. Thursday. Ramaswamy received 1,174 signatures, passing the 1,000 signature threshold.
It’s not the first time the state has dealt with a dead-voter signature scandal in recent years, either—paperwork submitted on behalf of Lt. Gov. Sabina Matos’ congressional campaign in 2022 was also accused of fabricating signatures in a similar manner. A criminal investigation into that matter remains ongoing.
