Signed, sealed, scrutinized: Bodnar claims to hit signature threshold amid complaint

Pamela King was leaving a concert in Missoula when a campaigner for Seth Bodnar approached her with a clipboard, not an unusual occurrence with elections inching closer. What happened next, King said, left her speechless.

“One of them approached me and asked if I would like to sign. I told him I wasn’t interested,” King wrote in a complaint filed to the Secretary of State’s office. “He then said, ‘I’ll pay you.’”

Facing a May 26 deadline to gather the necessary 13,000 signatures, Bodnar was in a race against the clock before securing a spot on the November ballot. King’s incident, she said, happened 10 days prior.

She walked away in a state of shock before the campaigner could clarify the offer or specify a dollar amount.

“It really upset me,” King told the Chronicle. “They’re not allowed to do that.”

On Monday, Bodnar's campaign announced it had surpassed the required threshold for a spot on the ballot, submitting approximately 30,000 signatures.

"Tens of thousands of Montanans from every corner of our state have spoken,” Bodnar said in the release. "They are sick of the broken politics of Washington and are ready for an Independent on the ballot in November.”

Recognizing the importance of participation in the electoral process, King said she appreciates the hustle of campaigners taking to the streets to gather signatures for Bodnar, or any issue important to them as voters.

“But we have to do it the right way,” King said. “This type of thing takes away from the integrity of our elections.”

In her view, civic involvement is a pillar of American democracy, and something that she’s participated in herself. That’s partially why the incident in Missoula instantly raised red flags.

“I’ve been trained in how to collect signatures for citizen led ballot initiatives,” King said. “We were told that we cannot offer money for signatures, or even in a joking way say that we would pay.”

In a statement to the Chronicle, Abigail Tracy, a spokesperson for Bodnar, said the campaign takes the allegation seriously and has trained all the signature gatherers retained by the campaign on compliance with the law and protocols.

“The complaint does not identify a petition signature gatherer by name or description,” Tracy said. “But as soon as we received this report, we reiterated to our team that the campaign does not tolerate the type of conduct alleged in this complaint.”

If the campaigner is identified and confirmed to be affiliated with the campaign, Tracy said the Bodnar team is committed to taking action.

King said she’s not sure whether the campaigner who offered to pay her was joking. She walked away too quickly to tell. But whatever the intention, she said it’s no laughing matter.

“I don’t know if Seth Bodnar’s campaign legitimized this, or if it was the canvasser wanting to get their numbers up,” King said. “I don’t want some campaigners who are badly trained to get in the way of citizen led ballot initiatives. That’s where my heart is.”

In an effort to prevent any further incidents, King filed a potential election law violation report with the Secretary of State’s office on May 21 and also alerted the Missoula County Elections Office, and the Commissioner of Political Practices.

“I just want it fixed,” King said.