When Charity Rorie, a mother of four in Mishawaka, Indiana, was shown a copy of the petition, she was shocked to see her name. Charity declared,
That's not my signature.… It's scary. It’s shocking. It definitely is illegal. A lot of people have already lost faith in politics and the whole realm of politics, so that just solidifies all of our worries and concerns….
We have a generation that's behind us who is not very faithful in making sure that they vote.… I think this isn't going to help the situation. I think that if we need to continue with our children the way that America is supposed to work, then I think it needs to be done correctly.
Fox News found another person who told the same story. Robert Hunter, Jr., whose signature also appeared on the petition, assured Fox, "I did not sign for Barack Obama. My wife and I actually signed a petition for Hillary Clinton. I am an Obama fan, but not in the primaries I wasn’t.” He pointed out that there is a “Jr.” after his name, which did not appear on his purported signature on the petition. Hunter’s statement is all the more telling because he openly declared that he is an “Obama fan,” who would have no wish to hurt the President today politically.
Indiana Secretary of State Charlie White, a Republican, observed:
Unfortunately, it appears that we have an appearance of a widespread, systematic organized effort by Democrat operatives to cheat the system by forging names, of especially Democrat voters, to put Barack Obama on the presidential ballot for the Democratic presidential primary in 2008.
The State Republican Party Chairman Eric Holcomb agreed:
I had always thought that now-President Obama had earned his victory in Indiana, but then I quickly learned that he had cheated his way on to the ballot in the primary.… This is the Chicago way and it will not be tolerated in the state of Indiana.
I would tell my friends across the country that they have to be on the lookout as well, because it’s just fact that some folks will do anything to try and win an election.
Holcomb has also called for a more widespread investigation:
We don't know the extent of the crime. We don't know how many people. We don't know if it was organized. Those were some of my questions. How deep does it go? Does it go to one county? Does it go to one district? Does it go to one state? Does it go to 49 other states?
Ryan Nees, a college student who interned at the Obama White House and who supports the President’s reelection, discovered the fraud. Fox News explained what Nees found:
Nees' investigation centered on the petitions that put then-senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the ballot. As many as 150 of the signatures, it is alleged, were faked. So many, in fact, that the numbers raise questions about whether Obama's campaign had enough legitimate signatures to qualify for a spot on the ballot.
Nees himself commented,
This fraud was obvious, far-reaching and appeared to be systemic. What seems to have happened is that a variety of people in northern Indiana knew that this fraud occurred, and actively participated and perpetuated the fraud, and did so on behalf of two presidential campaigns.
An experienced political reporter in Indiana, Brian Howey, actually broke the story. He explained,
Somebody tried to pull a fast one. In one case there were 18 consecutive pages where it looked like there was [just] one or two [people's] handwriting. Were these low-level functionaries that decided to tamper with the process, or was this something that was ordered from a higher level?
As Nees observed, "Election fraud is particularly troublesome, because it undermines the whole integrity of our voting process…. Maintaining the integrity of elections in the United States is an important thing."
