DA’s Office Asked To Investigate 1st Ward Petition Fraud

Utica,  NY (WIBX) - The Democratic candidate for the 1st Ward Common Council seat in Utica has filed a complaint with the Oneida County District Attorney's Office asking for an investigation into fraudulently signed petitions.  Alan Pelesic is accusing his opponent, fellow Democrat and incumbent Frank Vescera, of having a large number of fraudulent signatures on his petition for re-election. "There is a large number of fraudulent signatures on Mr. Frank Vescera's petition. I'm going to go ahead and say that he wasn't the only person who collected signatures on his petition, and it's to be determined who obtained the fraudulent signatures and how they were obtained. I'm not pointing fingers and saying that he did everything wrong, but there is a large amount of fraudulant signatures on Mr. Vescera's petition," Pelesic said during his guest appearance on First Look.

Pelesic said the complaint, include the questionable petition and statements from people who attested to not signing the petition. "People who submitted statements showing that they were misled into thinking that they're signing something completely different, and there's people who witnessed people who are collecting signatures, signing signatures in their own hand. But I think there is a large amount of fraudulent activity that took place on his petitions and it's going to be investigated," he said.

District Attorney Scott McNamara confirmed the complaint but says his office will not investigate the allegations until after the election is over. He said, "In a situation like this it is my policy to err on the side of caution and to do the investigation after the election is over. We did the exact same thing with the John Dote investigation." McNamara goes onto say, "That complaint will sit dormant until after the election is over." He added, "Mr Vescera has done the exact same thing to other people on different elections." And says these types of situations are not uncommon.