Georgia man sentenced to jail, fines in 2022 election petition fraud case
March 4, 2024 (DENVER)—A Georgia man charged with submitting petitions with forged signatures to try to place a candidate on the 2022 Republican primary ballot for the 7th Congressional District has been sentenced to jail time and fines, Attorney General Phil Weiser announced today.
A 2023 investigation by the attorney general’s office found that several signatures were those of deceased voters or voters who moved out of Colorado before the petition was circulated. There were also voters whose names appeared multiple times on the petition, but none of these voters actually signed the petition.
Jordahni Rimpel pleaded guilty to one count Attempt to Influence a Public Servant, a class 4 felony, and one count Perjury, a class 2 misdemeanor. He was sentenced last week by a Denver District Court judge to 10 days in jail, ordered to pay a $500 fine as well repay over $3,500 in costs when he was extradited from Georgia. He must also submit letters of apology to the secretary of state and to former congressional candidate Carl Andersen. Rimpel received a conviction for the perjury count and was placed on a two-year deferred judgment and sentence for the felony count.
“Access to the ballot in Colorado must reflect the will of voters, not fraud perpetrated by criminal actors,” Weiser stated. “We will continue to take election fraud seriously and vigorously safeguard election integrity.”
Rimpel was a paid circulator employed by the Oregon-based professional petitioning firm Grassfire, LLC. The firm was hired by the Carl Andersen for Congress campaign to circulate a petition to gather the necessary 1,500 valid signatures for Andersen to be placed on the Republican primary ballot. Rimpel signed affidavits affirming that he gathered signatures for this petition from people who signed the petition in his presence.
The secretary of state’s office received and then rejected the petition due to an insufficient number of valid voter signatures on the petition. Through its internal screening processes, the secretary’s office determined there was an unusually high number of signatures on the Andersen petition that did not match signatures in voter files and referred the matter to the attorney general’s office.
Five other individuals face charges and their cases are pending in Denver District Court. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
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