UPDATE: Woman pleads guilty to forging voter signatures in St. Joseph County
Karina Escobar Perez UPDATE: ABC57 was at the pre-trial hearing Friday for election petition carrier, Karina Escobar Perez, accused of forging voter signatures on candidate ballot petitions in February 2024. She was charged with one count of Counterfeiting, a Level 6 Felony.
At the hearing, Perez pleaded guilty to the Level 6 Felony charge.
Perez's charge stemmed from an attempt to get presidential candidate Dean Phillips on the Indiana ballot.
Phillips allegedly hired a company to collect petition signatures.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Perez was allegedly paid $5,000 to obtain the 500 signatures needed in just five days.
Court documents state she admitted to having voters' signatures forged on the petitions because she was under a lot of pressure.
Investigators interviewed several people whose signatures were listed, and they said they never signed them.
Documents show one person listed on the petitions had even died in 2016.
ORIGINAL STORY: ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- As of Thursday afternoon, an election petition carrier has been charged with forging voter signatures on candidate ballot petitions, a Level 6 Felony.
In February 2024, an election petition carrier, identified as Karina Escobar Perez, turned in 530 voter signatures to the St. Joseph County Election and Voter Registration office; after a thorough review of the submitted signatures, it was found that only 19 of those signatures could be validated by the Indiana Statewide Voter Registration System.
"Election fraud is not a conspiracy theory in St. Joseph County. It is real," said Clerk Amy Rolfes on Feb. 2 of 2024. "What we found is a cause for great concern. Election or petition fraud will not be tolerated."
A pre-trial hearing has been set for Friday in the St. Joseph County Courthouse 3 at 129 S. Main St.
