By Collin Roth

On Thursday, Media Trackers reported the plight of Jeff Demet, a Racine native who found his name forged four times on petitions to recall Republican State Senator Van Wanggaard. The story was followed up by TMJ4 who interviewed two more individuals who’s names were on recall petitions when they never signed, including Jeff’s mother Mary who’s name appears twice.

Ken Brown of CRG Racine first noticed that Jeff Demet’s brother Mark Demet was a circulator for one of the pages that features both Jeff and Mary Demet’s names.

After an examination of Mark Demet’s circulation pages in the Van Wanggaard recall, as many as 15% of the 70 signatures he gathered were duplicates!

Mark Demet circulated a total of 7 pages for the Wanggaard Recall (Pages 2752, 2753, 2754, 2755 2756, 3427, and 3428). Five of Mark Demet’s recall petition pages feature a total of 11 duplicates, with 9 of those duplicates occurring in just a 3 day period from December 21 to December 23.

• Page 2754 features Melvin Beatie, his name is also found on Page 2203
• Page 2755 features Cameron Cosey, his name is also found on Page 2634
• Page 2755 features Bruce Sargent, his name is also found on Page 2032
• Page 2755 features Jeff Demet (previously reported), his name is found on Pages 809, 2559, and 2745
• Page 2756 features Michael Noll, his name is found on Page 2393
• Page 2756 features Melvinnie Scott, also appears on Page 3057
• Page 2752 features Ronnie Agnew, also appears on Page 1782
• Page 2752 features Ozella Hill, also appears on Page 717
• Page 2752 features Lenora Calloway, also appears on Page 934
• Page 3428 features Keith Martin, he also appears on Page 1859
• Page 3428 features Mary Demet (Mark’s mother), she also appears on Page 2755

It should be noted that without handwriting analysis, it cannot be determined whether Mark Demet signed any of the duplicate signatures or whether he simply facilitated a high number of individuals signing multiple times. But given that Mark Demet’s signature shows up twice on the Wanggaard recall (Pages 241 and 2509), and the fact that the name of his brother and mother are forged on recall pages he circulated, it lends one to believe something is fishy with Mark Demet’s circulation pages.

The language at the bottom of each recall petition page reads:

I personally circulated this recall petition and personally obtained each of the signatures on this page. I know that the signors are electors of the jurisdiction or district represented by the officeholder named in this petition. I know that each person signed the paper with full knowledge of its content on the date indicated opposite his or her name. I know their respective residences given. I support this recall petition. I am aware that falsifying this petition is punishable under S. 12.13.(3)(a). Wis. Stats.

Local citizen watchdog CRG of Racine first reported the issue of Jeff Demet’s multiple forged signatures on Wednesday and informed Media Trackers on Thursday that the Racine County Sheriff was launching an investigation into the matter.