Posted on Wed, Jun. 14, 2006	

Candidate whose foe duplicated signatures may be on
ballot, judge says

By Michelle Ku
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

Julian Beard, a Fourth District Urban County Council
candidate, will be
on the ballot for the November general election,
Fayette Circuit Judge
Gary Payne has ruled.

Payne said Bill Roberts, Beard's opponent, acted in
bad faith when he
or members of his campaign intentionally collected
duplicate signatures
on a petition to run for office in an attempt to
knock Beard out of the
race.

"After careful consideration of the testimony ...
the court is
convinced that Roberts and/or members of his
campaign staff knowingly
and intentionally obtained signatures on Roberts'
petition in an
attempt to duplicate signatures on Beard's petition
and therefore
disqualify Beard," Payne wrote in his ruling.

Roberts could not be reached immediately for
comment.

Don Todd, Beard's attorney, said he was pleased with
Payne ruling.

"In elections for the city hall, people want to
interact with their
candidates, they want to find out where they stand,
they want a chance
to pick and choose who will represent them," Todd
said.

If Payne had removed Beard from the ballot, Roberts
would have run
uncontested in November.

Roberts had contended that Beard should be
disqualified from the race
because Beard's petition did not have the 100
signatures required to
run for office.

Beard submitted a petition with 112 voter
signatures, 15 of which
appeared on the petitions of both Beard and Roberts.
Duplicate
signatures invalidate the signatures on both
petitions, which dropped
Beard to fewer than the 100 required to run.
(Roberts submitted a
petition with more than 300 signatures.)

Beard filed his petition first. Roberts turned in a
petition with
nearly 150 signatures the day after Beard. Of the
initial signatures
submitted by Roberts, only three were duplicates.

Payne's ruling comes 10 weeks after a five-hour
hearing in which he
heard testimony from David Pratt, a Lexington
attorney who is a friend
of Roberts.

Pratt -- who signed both Beard's and Roberts'
petitions -- testified
that Roberts called him on Jan. 31, the day of the
filing deadline, and
asked whether Pratt and his wife would sign Roberts'
petition.

Pratt said that initially he was unsure whether he
lived in Roberts'
district, but Roberts assured Pratt that he did. "He
(Roberts) said
'Yes you do; you signed Julian Beard's,'" Pratt
said.

After Roberts' request, Pratt and his wife, Cindy,
made arrangements to
sign Roberts' petition. Cindy Pratt signed Beard's
petition at the same
time as her husband.

About an hour before the filing deadline, Roberts'
wife, Basha, dropped
off a petition at the county clerk's office with
nine signatures,
including those of the Pratts. Seven of those nine
signatures were
duplicates.

"Due to the conduct demonstrated in obtaining such
signatures, the
duplicate signatures on Roberts' fourth petition
shall not be counted
as valid on that petition," Payne ruled.
Reach Michelle Ku at (859) 231-1335, 1-800-950-6397,
Ext. 1335, or
mku@herald-leader.com.

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