WASHINGTON (AP) — City voting officials ordered Mayor Anthony A. Williams' re-election campaign on Wednesday to pay $277,700 in fines for submitting thousands of fraudulent signatures on election petitions.
The violations ranged "from massive forgeries to excessive fraud," said Stephen G. Callas, one of three members of the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics. The panel voted unanimously to levy the fine.
Last month, Williams was barred from the Sept. 10 Democratic primary ballot for failing to collect the required 2,000 valid signatures. About 10 percent of the fine will be suspended if Williams agrees to have his volunteers and campaign workers trained to avoid future violations of city election laws.
"The mayor has suffered public embarrassment," said Benjamin F. Wilson, chairman of the panel that could have hit the mayor with more than $1 million in fines.
"There were 5,465 obvious forgeries," Wilson said. Names appearing on the petitions included actor Kelsey Grammer, singer Billy Joel and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. The names of petition circulators were also forged.