(Montville, NJ) Last Friday, the DeGroot campaign formally objected to the candidacies of both Robert Snyder for Commissioner and Andrew Agliatta for County Clerk. Our campaign was made aware that their petitions were improperly circulated and notarized. This was confirmed by eyewitness testimony and video evidence.

Eyewitness testimony and video evidence of the petition signers confirmed that the circulator was not present when Republican voters signed the petitions for Snyder and Agliatta. It was circulated instead by a woman who was identified as an Executive Board Member of the Morris County Republican Committee and a Montville School Board Member, who is also an elected Morris County Committee Woman. The Morris County Republican Committee had previously chosen their “Line” candidate for County Commissioner Tyfun Selen.

This shady scheme of collecting signatures for these two “last day to file” candidates was solely for the reason of creating confusion among Republicans and to hurt DeGroot’s campaign by pushing his bracket further off the ballot and diluting DeGroot’s chances for victory. Make no mistake, there are shady things going on, and schemes were hatched to protect Selen and the “Line.”

This woman did not identify the candidates she was collecting signatures for and misled the signers as to who they were signing for. One signer stated that this woman requested they sign the petition twice but did not inform them that the petition was for two candidates. Further, this woman did not sign the petition as the circulator; however, a young man did sign the petition under oath, knowing he was not the circulator.

Paul DeGroot is supported by the real Republican voters of Morris County, who will not fall for last-minute ballot-fixing schemes by the establishment for their own personal gain. Collusion with phantom candidates to manipulate the ballot is a shocking and grave threat to voter integrity and simply a dirty trick. The Republican Party has long opposed the Democrat’s careless election schemes. We cannot allow fraudulent petitions and back-door deals to manipulate the ballot in our own Party. We must do better.

As a former Chief Assistant Prosecutor of the Public Integrity Section, his unit sought out and prosecuted corruption. When elected to the Board of County Commissioners, DeGroot will be a breath of fresh air and shine a bright light to expose backroom deals and prevent things like this from happening in the future.