MASSACHUSETTS — The Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission ruled on June 26 to disqualify Republican candidates Anne Manning Martin and Michael C. Walsh from the state primary ballot, citing more than 1,000 fraudulent signatures on each of their nomination papers. The commission ordered the Secretary of the Commonwealth not to print their names on the September state primary ballots.

Martin was a candidate for Lieutenant Governor and Walsh was a candidate for Attorney General. Candidates for these offices in Massachusetts must gather 10,000 certified signatures to qualify for the ballot. The Massachusetts Democratic Party accused both candidates of submitting fraudulent signatures on June 3.

A complaint was filed against Martin by Shawn Oliver, a Republican candidate for lieutenant governor. The commission found that 1,279 of Martin's 10,692 signatures were invalid. Additionally, 600 signatures on her nomination papers were found to be in the identical order as on corresponding pages. Names on her nomination papers appeared to have been copied from the voter database.

For Walsh, the commission invalidated 1,021 of his 10,677 signatures. A forensic document examiner concluded that most voter signatures on Walsh's nomination papers from the towns of Weymouth and Scituate were written by the same person. The examiner also found that voter names on Walsh's nomination papers were listed in the exact same order as a database of voters managed by the Republican party.

Martin and Walsh told State House News Service that they plan to appeal the decisions made by the commission.