A website was launched online last month alleging the four independent candidates running for county office “harvested” signatures at senior care facilities to acquire their places on the November ballot.
The website, located at platte-research.com, cites documents obtained from the Platte County Board of Elections and a July letter written by Rachel Kautz to Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd. At the time of the letter’s release, the Citizen asked Zahnd for comment on any potential investigation and received no response.
In the letter, Kautz states that documents from the Board of Elections show that what independent candidates conducted was “not ordinary canvassing, but rather the systematic harvesting of signatures from some of the most vulnerable people in Platte County, carried out by the people best positioned to exploit their trust.”
The website is clearly organized using the letter as a template, but cites no webmaster or ownership.
Kautz’s letter was sent to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the Secretary of State and the Attorney General.
The four candidates, Dale Brouk, Kevin Robinson, Chris Kendall and Holly Cayer, formed the “Neighbors First” coalition earlier this summer, after all four withdrew as Republican candidates for presiding commissioner, auditor, treasurer and collector, respectively. The withdrawal came when the Platte County Commission considered disqualifying seven candidates due to failure to file a personal financial disclosure with the county. However, commissioners voted two-to-one to not bar the candidates after learning the requirements were not made clear by the Board of Elections and the county itself.
Afterward, all four candidates announced their intent to run as independent candidates and were able to collect enough signatures to appear on the November ballot.
Another anonymous website has also appeared in recent weeks. Blocked-in-Platte.com alleges candidates have unlawfully blocked users from their campaign Facebook pages.
The letter states, “It is estimated that hundreds of the signatures used to place four independent candidates on the November ballot were collected inside senior-living facilities, many in single-day sweeps, with the same elderly residents signing all four candidates’ petitions in one sitting. These facilities include Riverstone Retirement Community (9000 N Congress Ave), Senior Star at Wexford Place (6500 N Cosby Ave), and Sage Grove at Tiffany Springs, formerly Benton House of Tiffany Springs (5901 NW 88th St) — the last of which offers a specialized memory-care facility for residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia.”
The letter and website both cite Riverstone resident Vernon Harms, whose family allegedly stated Harms was told he had to sign the petitions, without being told what they were for.
Brouk’s campaign manager, Melissa Moran, is also named in both the letter and the website as working in the senior care field and using that position to benefit the candidates.