Signature Masters Inc
| Signature Masters | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Location: | Detroit, Mich. |
| Top official: | Shawn D. Wilmoth |
| Year founded: | 2010 |
Signature Masters Inc is a Detroit-based company that describes itself as working for "petition management solutions on a national level."[1]
Work
Signature Masters was founded in Colorado in 2010 and branched out to work on petition management strategy in a number of states.[2] The group focuses its work in three main areas: professional signature gathering, voter education and marketing. According to its website, the organization's signature gathering arm works "for initiative petitions, referendum petitions, constitutional amendment petitions, party ballot access, candidate access, & political and business polling surveys."[3]
The group has been involved in a number of petition drives around the country, including the South Dakota Small Investors Protection Act (2008), which qualified for the ballot but was defeated in the general election.[4]
Petition drives
This section contains some of the petition drives that Signature Masters has managed.[5] This section also includes 
(approved), 
(defeated) and 
(not on ballot) statuses for the election outcome of the petitions.
Initiatives
States of Candidates and full party ballot access
Candidates
- Pete Domenici Jr. for governor (New Mexico)
- Ken Reeder for school board (St. Joseph, Missouri)
- Imtiaz Syed for public advocate (New York City)
Full Party Access
Noteworthy events
In 2010, Signature Masters and Shawn Wilmoth were hired by The Committee for a Better Arlington to "train local residents to collect 12,000 signatures" to get an initiative that would change the Arlington County's type of government onto the November ballot. The measure was short by 1,350 signatures. County general registrar Linda Lindberg disqualified 2,200 more signatures gathered by two signature collectors hired by Signature Masters. These two were convicted felons and could not legally collect signatures.[6]
The signature collectors, Cheryl Simmons and William Cockerham, pleaded guilty to voter fraud charges in February 2011. Wilmoth, the head of Signature Masters, was arrested and indicted with two counts of election fraud in March 2011.[7] Wilmoth pleaded guilty to both counts of election fraud on September 20, 2011.[8][9]
See also
- Shawn D. Wilmoth
- Petition drive management companies
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Signature Masters, "Home," accessed January 12, 2016
- ↑ Signature Masters, "About Us," accessed January 13, 2016
- ↑ Signature Masters, "Services," accessed January 13, 2016
- ↑ National Solutions, "Staff," accessed January 13, 2016
- ↑ Shawn D. Wilmoth, "Issues Shawn Wilmoth Has been Involved with by state," accessed January 14, 2016
- ↑ Washington Post, "Drive to change Arlington's government fails," August 5, 2010
- ↑ Washington Post, "Third indictment in Arlington voter fraud," April 11, 2011
- ↑ Virginia Courts Case Information System, "Arlington County Circuit Criminal Division," accessed January 13, 2016
- ↑ Virginia Courts Case Information System, "Arlington County Circuit Criminal Division," accessed January 13, 2016
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