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GA man convicted of forging signatures in attempt to get candidate on 2022 ballot

FILE PHOTO: Early voting begins in Georgia for U.S. midterms FILE PHOTO: A line of early voters stretches outside the building as early voting begins for the midterm elections at the Citizens Service Center in Columbus, Georgia, U.S., October 17, 2022. REUTERS/Cheney Orr/File Photo

ATLANTA — A Georgia man will have to spend 10 days in jail and pay a $3,500 fine after he was found guilty of forging signatures to try and get a candidate on the ballot in the 2022 primary election.

Jordahni Rimpel pleaded guilty to charges of an attempt to influence a public servant and perjury last week in Denver District Court in Colorado.

Rimpel was accused of submitting petitions with forged signatures to try and get a Republican candidate on the ticket in Colorado’s 7th Congressional District.

An investigation by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office found that “several signatures were those of deceased voters or voters who moved out of Colorado before the petition was circulated. There were also voters whose names appeared multiple times on the petition, but none of these voters actually signed the petition.”

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Rimpel, along with five others, “were paid circulators employed by the Oregon-based professional petitioning firm Grassfire, LLC. The firm was hired by the Carl Andersen for Congress campaign to circulate a petition to gather the necessary 1,500 valid signatures for Andersen to be placed on the Republican primary ballot. Each of the defendants signed affidavits affirming that they gathered signatures for this petition from people who signed the petition in their presence.”

The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office rejected the petition “due to an insufficient number of valid voter signatures on the petition.”

The five others who are said to have worked with Rimpel have been charged and their cases are still pending in Colorado.

As part of his conviction, Rimpel also has to “submit letters of apology to the secretary of state and to former congressional candidate Carl Andersen.”

Rimpel is expected to be extradited back to Georgia.

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