By MACKENZIE WEINGER | 10/18/11 6:33 AM EDT
An Indiana Democratic county chairman accused of submitting petitions with hundreds of faked signatures for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the 2008 primary resigned Monday, according to reports.
St. Joseph County Democratic Party Chair Butch Morgan stepped down from his position in light of the scandal, but insisted he had “done nothing wrong,” the South Bend Tribune reported late Monday night. Morgan also resigned as Democratic chair for Indiana’s 2nd Congressional District.
He faces allegations he submitted hundreds of forged signatures - including that of a former governor - on petitions to get Clinton and Obama on the 2008 Indiana primary ballot.
“I regret having to resign and hope no one will misinterpret the reasons for my resignation,” Morgan said in a written statement. “I have done nothing wrong and I look forward to an investigation that will exonerate me of any wrongdoing.”
Former Democratic Gov. Joe Kernan, who supported Clinton in the 2008 primary, told the Associated Press last week he did not sign the petition for Obama, although his name is on the document. When asked whether the signature on the petition looked like his, Kernan said “no, not at all. Nor does the printing look like mine.”
To qualify for the primary ballot, state law requires every candidate to submit 500 signatures from registered voters in every county. A South Bend Tribune and the Howey Politics Indiana newsletter investigation revealed that a number of signatures on the St. Joseph County petitions for both Clinton and Obama appeared to be forgeries.
Indiana’s Republican Party Chair Eric Holcomb has called for a federal investigation into the allegations. Holcomb sent a formal request to the Department of Justice on Friday, and told the South Bend Tribune on Monday that Morgan “may very well be the first domino to fall in this growing scandal.”
“While my counterpart continues to call this an ‘isolated’ incident, it is becoming clearer by the day there was nothing isolated about the forging and certifying of potentially hundreds of signatures in the 2008 Democratic primary,” Holcomb said.
And St. Joseph County Prosecutor Michael Dovak told the South Bend Tribune on Monday he is working with a federal attorney on an investigation into the forged signatures
Indiana Democratic Party Chair Dan Parker said he supports an investigation “to determine how this isolated incident occurred and hold anyone involved accountable.”
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