A dozen paid agents registered with the Arizona Secretary of State on Sunday to collect signatures on behalf of the left-wing presidential candidate. Cornelius Westlisting his employer as a Republican-leaning company that recently worked for GOP candidate Blake Masters.
Arizona, unlike most states, requires paid or out-of-state petition collectors to register with the state. In yours public recordsSome of the circulators working to help West get to the polls in Arizona had trouble spelling his name, listing him as “Carnel West” or “Cornelle West.”
All boxes checked indicating they are out of state and being paid. All listed Wells Marketing LLC – or some variation, with some misspellings – as the company they work for.
It’s unclear who is paying them. Wells Marketing did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“The Democratic Party and mainstream media are fabricating stories about us having ties to Republican Party operatives. False!” said Western campaign spokesman Edwin DeJesus. “We are not hiring Republicans or Democrats. This is a clear defamation because we defend workers, while they protect the interests of the wealthy elite.”
“They falsely claim that we are helping Trump to discredit us, but we support the poor and workers,” he added.
NBC News recently uncovered Republican-linked operatives secretly collecting signatures to West, North Carolina, another key swing state. Last week, the Democratic majority on the North Carolina State Board of Elections voted against giving early voting access to West through a new political party started in his name, citing the NBC News report and other concerns.
West will have to collect tens of thousands of signatures to get on the ballot in Arizona, but it’s unlikely that West’s campaign will be paying the circulators. The campaign is essentially bankrupt, reporting in its most recent campaign finance report that he owed more money than he had on hand. And the campaign has said it is ideologically committed to using volunteers rather than paid canvassers.
Wells Marketing collected signatures earlier this year for several Arizona Republican candidates, including Masters, state Rep. Justin Heap and GOP Senate candidate Elizabeth Jean Reye, according to to the records of the secretary of state. He also reported working on behalf of Green Party Senate candidate Mike Norton, whom the Green Party of Arizona rejected as one of the two plants running on behalf of the main parties.
Some prominent Republicans promoted West’s left-wing candidacy as a way of “take votes from Joe Biden.” West is a famous black academic and racial justice activist who has made the plight of Gazans suffering during Israel’s war against Hamas a central focus of his campaign.
Republicans looking to boost the West said they are focused on general election swing states like Arizona, where a few thousand votes could decide whether President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump wins in November.
This article was originally published in NBCNews. with
