U.S. Rep. William Lipinski (D., Ill.) conceded Friday that 20 percent of the signatures on petitions seeking a referendum on a nonpartisan mayoral election may have been forged, but he maintained that there were still enough valid signatures to put the question to the voters.
The admission came as supporters of Mayor Harold Washington geared up for a full weekend of reviewing the more than 8,100 sheets of signatures in the search for discrepancies that would prevent the referendum from appearing on the Nov. 4 ballot.
Lipinski, who is also 23d Ward Democratic committeeman and the principal spokesman for the referendum, admitted that the petitions contain an abnormally high number of fraudulent signatures, even for Chicago.
”Normally, petitions are 10 to 15 percent forged,” Lipinski said.
”Maybe this, since it is so large, will go 20 percent.”
If Lipinski`s estimates are correct, 40,400 of the approximately 202,000 signatures would be invalidated. The referendum, however, needs 142,824 signatures to put it on the ballot; by Lipinski`s calculations, the petitions would still have 162,000 valid signatures, or 19,000 more than necessary.
The mayor`s forces nevertheless remained confident that they would come up with enough irregularities to kill the referendum.
By Friday evening, dozens of Washington loyalists, including several city employees, had looked at more than a third of the petitions, said Ald. Timothy Evans (4th), the mayor`s Chicago City Council floor leader and head of Washington`s political organization, the Political Education Project (PEP), which is overseeing the petition review.
”Even David was able to knock down a Goliath when he had the right aim,” Evans said.
The deadline for filing objections to the petitions with the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners is 5 p.m. Monday. Washington administration sources said it is likely that an extension will be sought in Cook County Circuit Court to give them more time to look over the petitions.
Tom Johnson, attorney for PEP, said a lawsuit also may be filed in U.S. District Court, contending that the referendum would violate the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits abridging the rights of any particular group, in this case Chicago`s black population.
Spot-checks of the petitions turned up several apparent irregularities, some of which occurred in Lipinski`s Southwest Side ward.
For instance, David DeBow, a 27-year-old man who Lipinski said is on the payroll of Ald. William Krystyniak (23d), submitted duplicate copies of six sheets of petitions. So instead of 300 signatures, his petitions contain only 150.
Also, several of those who signed the petitions that DeBow said he circulated said the petition was brought to them by a middle-aged woman.
Lipinski said he was embarrassed by the revelation, but he added that his ward organization, which collected 31,000 signatures, threw out 60 sheets, containing a maximum of 1,500 signatures ”because they didn`t look any good.”
”Someone must have duplicated poor Dave`s petitions,” Lipinski said.
Other examples of irregularities included individuals signing the names of other family members, unregistered voters putting their names to the petition, and people who are not themselves registered voters, as required by law, acting as circulators.
Other names appeared signed by petition circulators, a practice known as round-tabling, and the signature of one Northwest Side circulator changed from one sheet of signatures to another. Yet another sheet, this one from the 10th Ward, seemed to have been painstakingly traced from another sheet of names.
Washington`s backers said there are thousands of such irregularities, which they said is evidence of ”massive fraud.”
”I think the state`s attorney should investigate,” Washington said Friday in City Hall. He then broke into a hearty laugh.
The mayor`s laughter was aimed at questioning the objectivity of State`s Atty. Richard Daley, whose office would conduct such an an investigation but who political observers expect will enter the mayor`s race if the referendum is approved.
Later Friday, Daley turned the matter over to Michael J. Angarola, the first assistant state`s attorney, who said he has contacted Evans and the elections board and asked them for any information they have about
irregularities in petition gathering.
The binding referendum, which the Board of Election Commissioners ruled this week should be on the ballot, would ask whether the mayor should be elected in a nonpartisan election, starting in February. If the measure is endorsed, the top two candidates would be forced into a runoff if no one receives more than 50 percent of the vote.
Mayoral candidates now run in a primary partisan election and then the winners run in a general election.
In 1983, under the current system, Washington faced two white Democrats in the Democratic primary and got more votes than either but fewer than the two combined. This made him the Democratic mayoral candidate. He then defeated the Republican candidate in April.
The new system could force Washington into a one-on-one contest against a popular white candidate in the April election–a contest he could lose in a city in which white voters outnumber black voters.
Washington is not only challenging the referendum petitions as fraudulent, but he also is contending that the nonpartisan election issue cannot be placed on the ballot in November because three other referendum questions are already on it. He contends that under law only three referendums can be put on the ballot at one time.
The questions of whether referendum proposals adopted by the city council rather than petitions are valid or whether four referendums can appear on the ballot are, by all indications, headed for a resolution in court.
Friday, about 250 people scoured the referendum petition in a vacant 4th- floor Department of Water room in City Hall. A check of the sign-in sheet revealed that 17 were city workers. Spokesmen for the city said the workers were on administrative leave or vacation or taking time due.
In another development, Evans said a group of ministers seeking the ouster of Michael Lavelle as elections board chairman would meet Saturday with U.S. Atty. Anton Valukas.
