New Paltz Town Councilman Daniel Torres filed a complaint just over a week ago with the New Paltz Police Department for a forged signature and falsifying a state document. His name was on a petition to put Kevin Roberts on the ballot for State Assembly – District 103.
Torres said he found out his signature was on the petition because he knew people reviewing the petitions and they thought it was odd that his name was on it, so they let him know.
Torres said he doesn’t think his name is the only name in the community that was forged.
“I think that in all likelihood, they realized that they weren’t going to have enough signatures to create the ballot, so what they did was go to my housing complex,” Torres said. “I was not home that day, so they probably forged my signature when they knocked on the door and found out that I wasn’t home, and I suspect that they did that for a number of people in the community as well.”
Torres said a lot of people in the community don’t have access to the petitions, so they are unaware that their name could be on the petition.
“I looked at them [the petitions] after that and saw my own grandmother’s signature was forged not once, but actually twice,” Torres said.
Torres said this action reflects on Roberts’ campaign.
“I will say that I do think that it says a lot about his campaign as a whole though that they had to resort to forgery to create the ballot line. That’s not necessarily a candidate I would want to elect as a representative,” Torres said.
Roberts said he takes full responsibility if one of his staff members did this, but doesn’t know what happened.
“I have no first-hand knowledge of the alleged forgery, I just know what’s going around and what Mr. Torres is saying,” Roberts said.
Torres said he will let the New Paltz Police Department and District Attorney handle the complaint from here and is willing to comply with anything they may need.