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Latest Indictment Shows Voter Fraud Conspiracy
Arlington, VA – April 11, 2011: The recent criminal indictments of Shawn Wilmoth by a special grand jury on two felony counts (CR11000315-00 and CR11000316-00) resulted from the Arlington Police’s investigation of Wilmoth’s conduct during last year’s change of government referendum effort, led by the Committee for a Better Arlington. His indictments further expose a troubling criminal conspiracy to commit election fraud.
Wilmoth’s firm, Signature Masters, was hired by the referendum proponents to bolster the committee’s signature collection efforts. These latest indictments of Wilmoth, coupled with the two previous related election fraud convictions of Cheryl Simmons and William Cockerham, paint a clearer picture of an orchestrated effort to defraud Arlington voters and manipulate Virginia’s referendum process.
Simmons, who pled guilty to criminal voter fraud, confirmed in court that Wilmoth paid her to collect voter signatures and that many of the signatures she claimed to witness were simply handed to her by Wilmoth at an Arlington coffee shop where they were meeting a notary. Similarly, Cockerham has also pled guilty to criminal voter fraud and confirmed in court that Wilmoth paid him, and that many of the signature pages he attested to were simply handed to him by Wilmoth when they were meeting a notary at an Arlington bank.
Copies of the petitions made public in 2010 show that Dena Kozanas, the campaign manager for the Committee for a Better Arlington, notarized all of the petition pages signed by Cockerham, and 100 of the 127 petition pages signed by Simmons.
Wilmoth’s indictment validates many of the concerns that the Coalition for Arlington Good Government (CAGG) raised during the referendum effort. Last year, CAGG detailed significant irregularities in the petition gathering process on its Web site, www.arlingtoncoalition.org. Two individuals have now admitted in court that some of these irregularities were the result of criminal acts – and that those criminal acts were encouraged and enabled by Wilmoth and occurred as they were meeting an unnamed notary.
CAGG co-chair Alan Howze said, “We appreciate the diligence with which the police have pursued this investigation. As the true extent of the fraud, and the organized effort that went into the fraud, continues to be revealed, we believe that it will provide additional insights into how the referendum process in Arlington, and across Virginia, can be strengthened to better ensure honest, lawful dialogue among Arlingtonians on issues facing our community.”
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CAGG STATEMENT ON RECENT VOTER FRAUD CONVICTIONS
Arlington, VA – February 27, 2011: The recent fraud convictions stemming from last year’s change of government effort appears to validate many of the concerns that the Coalition for Arlington Good Government (CAGG) raised during the referendum effort. Last year, CAGG detailed significant irregularities in the petition gathering process on our website, www.arlingtoncoalition.org.
It remains to be seen whether further investigation will reveal who orchestrated the effort to circumvent Virginia’s existing referendum safeguards, in order to place before voters a measure to change the structure of our local government. Through the voter fraud investigation, we now know that at least 4,700 signatures were illegally submitted by Mr. Cockerham and Ms. Simmons. Some of the falsified and invalid signature sheets were tossed during the review phase of the petition process, however, we also now know that Mr. Cockerham’s several thousand illegally collected signatures were in-fact included in the Registrar’s final tally. The ability to manipulate our electoral system using out-of-state contractors and loopholes in existing safeguards is troubling.
This story continues to unfold, but has already helped to reveal clear weaknesses in the referendum process in Arlington and across Virginia. We hope this situation will lead to positive reforms that better ensure honest, lawful dialogue among Arlingtonians on issues facing our community.
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CAGG STATEMENT ON ARLINGTON REGISTRAR’S PETITION REPORT
Arlington, VA – July 29, 2010: The Coalition for Arlington Good Government (CAGG) formed earlier this year to educate voters about the damaging effects of the change of government referendum petition, circulated in Arlington for the past nine months.
With the news that Arlington’s Office of the Voter Registrar has sent a final report to the Circuit Court certifying that “the petitions lack sufficient number of verified registered voters,” CAGG would like to thank Arlington voters who:
- Insisted on an informed public debate to examine factual options;
- Considered the pros and cons of the proposed form of government; and
- Declined to sign the petition.
CAGG Co-chair Judy Connally said, “We applaud Arlington County Voter Registrar Linda Lindberg and her staff for conducting a thorough, fair and transparent review of the signatures.”
CAGG Co-chair Alan Howze added, “We would like to thank CAGG’s partner organizations, and the many grassroots volunteers who joined us in our efforts to educate the community on this important issue.”
CAGG’s voter education efforts included analyzing negative policy impacts on the change of government proposal; participating in numerous public debates and responding to questionnaires; creating the website www.ArlingtonCoalition.org and a Facebook page; and publishing a detailed analysis that documented many irregularities in how some of the petitions were circulated.
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Coalition for Arlington Good Government_Press_Release_2010.07.29
To see the results of CAGG’s review and analysis of the submitted petitions, select the “CAGG Petition Review” link on the right hand side of the page.
Welcome to the Coalition for Arlington Good Government (CAGG) website! CAGG is a broad-based community coalition whose purpose is to educate voters about the damaging effects of the change of government referendum being circulated in Arlington.
We have created this website as part of our efforts to provide Arlington residents with information and education about the harmful effects of the referendum. The referendum would take Arlington backwards and is unwarranted and unwise. We are encouraging voters to DECLINE TO SIGN the referendum petition.
Check out our pages for lots of information and come back again soon as our content is frequently updated to provide you the latest information, news articles, links and video. Please use the Volunteer Page to sign up to help or if you are interested in having a member of the Coalition come and speak to your community group about this important issue for Arlington residents.
Defeating this referendum is not about gaining or losing partisan advantage, it is about standing up to defeat very bad public policy that would damage our community. It’s about making sure that we have a local government that meets the needs of our populous and diverse county and works in the best interests of all of Arlington.
The referendum would invalidate many authorities that have been granted to Arlington over the years by the Virginia Legislature. Approving the referendum would undo decades of work to give Arlington more local control on a wide range of issues, and place our community at the mercy of four rural counties in Southwest Virginia and Richmond to reinstate the authorities we would lose. The damage from the referendum would:
- Invalidate Arlington’s strong locally-adopted child day care standards and replace them with minimal state requirements
- Bring ward style politics into school district boundary and funding decisions
- Roll-back Arlington’s power to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation
- Eliminate Arlington’s civil service system and give County Board members direct authority to hire and fire county employees
The referendum petition is being driven by some Arlington County public safety employees who are dissatisfied with county budget and resource allocation decisions. We don’t need to cause all this collateral damage just because the Firefighters Union Leadership has an axe to grind with the former County Manager.
The proposed new form of government would impose on Arlington residents a governmental form created in 1938, and used by only four rural counties in Southwest Virginia (Russell, Scott, Carroll and Grayson). For comparison, Arlington is 150 times more densely populated than any of these counties. Moreover, it would yoke Arlington to these same rural counties, because any additional local authority that we sought from the state, whether to control growth, protect diversity, or preserve our environment, would have to be agreed to by all four counties or a 2/3 vote of the state legislature. Why cause all this disruption because of dissatisfaction among some County public safety employees? This referendum proposal is truly “Throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”
We are encouraging voters not to sign the petition and keep this harmful initiative off of the ballot. Virginia has intentionally set a high bar for a proposed referendum item and 10% of registered voters must sign a petition to get a proposal onto the ballot. This helps to keep frivolous and pernicious proposals off the ballot, and one need only look to California to see the real dangers of governing by referendum. Benign appearing proposals can have very destructive consequences, and such is the case with the referendum petition to change Arlington’s form of government.
To learn more check out the Learn More page on our website for lots of information about the referendum and its harmful impacts.
