Candidate Admits Signing Daughter's Name
Aldermanic Candidate Signs Daughter's Name on Absentee Ballot Application
A candidate for Frederick city alderman confessed to signing his daughter’s name on an application for an absentee ballot in a video recording Wednesday. In the video above, posted on his candidate Facebook page Wednesday, Republican Bryan Chaney said he was frustrated that his daughter, a college freshman in West Virginia, hadn’t requested the application herself after he sent her the link several weeks ago.
After obtaining her permission over the phone, he signed her name, he said, and turned in her application.
"I need to share with you a mistake that I made, that I didn’t know I made … and I need to share it with you first. …I don’t know how big a deal it’s going to be, but you might read about it in the paper tomorrow,” Chaney said at the start of the video.
He goes on to tell how he came to ask his daughter for her “authorization” to sign her name on the absentee ballot and email it in to the Election Board. “I should have known better; it was poor judgement. I thought I was doing the right thing, but I wasn’t. I will take whatever consequences come out of it,” he said in the video.
According to the last line of the absentee ballot application, available on the city’s website; Falsely applying for an absentee ballot is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $1,000, imprisonment for up to two years, or both.
The city’s election board met Tuesday, and rejected the application for Anna Chaney, a registered city voter, because it was signed by her father. The board will investigate further after the Nov. 7 election to determine whether to take legal or other action.
In his video mea culpa, Chaney said he found out from City Hall that there’s a form he could’ve used to become his daughter’s “agent” to get authorization to pick up a ballot for her. But, according to Section 7-3 of city election law, as a candidate for city office, he could not legally act as an agent. For someone else to act as agent, a signature from the voter is still required.
Chaney also complained that the agent forms were not readily available and that the city needs to fix that issue so that other people will have an easier time finding information. The city’s absentee ballot link is on the city’s election page, along with links to election law, including information about acting as an “agent.”
The false signature was uncovered earlier this week after Harvey opened an email from Chaney on Saturday, Oct. 28. “I thought, ‘something’s not quite right here.’ The signature was familiar because we had processed a request from him for voter data,” Election Director Stuart Harvey said in an interview.
The signature “jumped out at me,” he said. When Harvey double-checked the forms on file for Chaney, his wife and his daughter, all registered at the same address, he decided to take it to the city’s Election Board.
“He had filled it out and signed it – there’s nothing wrong with filling it out, as long as they [the applicant] signs it. That’s legit,” Harvey said. “This was not.”
Chaney phoned Harvey Wednesday afternoon to find out his options, and told Harvey that his daughter had no access to a printer or scanner at West Virginia University.
Wednesday evening, Chaney said he’d had a long day and would be available to answer questions from The Frederick Extra on Thursday.
