Here's the Fox Undercover petition fraud segment for those that missed it when it originally aired.
Former paid petition worker Angela McElroy reveals the bait-and-switch tactics she was taught by her employers and demonstrates just how easy it is to steal signatures (she averages one bait-and-switch every two minutes in the video) and states petition workers can make as much as $1,200 on a good day!
Also watch for...
- Attorney General Tom Reilly casually explaining that he is powerless to do anything about the fraud and stating that perhaps we should pass some laws against it (hmmm, yeah that sounds like a good idea).
- Evelyn Reilly of the Massachusetts Family Institute (petition sponsors) claiming that her organization was totally unaware the company they hired to oversee signature collection, Arno Political Consultants, had a national reputation for using fraudulent tactics (they might want to do a basic Google search the next time they hand someone what must have been hundreds of thousands of dollars).
- Senator Augustus discussing his petition anti-fraud bill.
Take-aways from this video: (1) The initiative petition system in Massachusetts is a disgrace; (2) The petition sponsors hired a sleazy, out-of-state company to do their dirty work while grandstanding to the media that they were running a grassroots, citizen-driven campaign; and (3), Tens of thousands of fraudulent signatures may have been collected.
Aaron Toleos, Director