AG’s mother’s name among those forged on petition

In forgery schemes, some names are plain unwise to attempt to fake if one hopes to avoid detection.

Likely chief among them is Maria Brnovich, the mother of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, the state’s top prosecutor, whose office often is tasked with investigating fraud rings.

But in another bizarre twist in the scandal enveloping a race for the Arizona Senate, the elder Brnovich’s name is among hundreds that apparently were forged on Mark Syms’ can-

didate nominating petitions.

Syms is an independent running for state Senate in Legislative District 28, but he could be removed from the ballot over allegations that many of his qualifying petitions are phony.

Mark Brnovich didn’t take kindly to his mother being among the voters who say their names were signed without their consent or knowledge.

“I learned this weekend that my mother’s signature had been forged by an individual collecting signatures for a campaign, and I’m deeply disturbed and disappointed,” Brnovich said in a statement Monday.

The attorney general also expressed dismay given that his mother, an immigrant from the former Yugoslavia, came to the U.S. to escape a communist state with rigged elections.

“My mother fled a government and system that didn’t value free and fair elections,” he said. “If the attorney general’s mother can fall victim to petition fraud, this shows the unfortunate truth that it can happen to anyone.”

Syms, a prominent doctor, has asserted he is the “victim of fraud” on the part of a company hired to gather his signatures.

Syms’ campaign declined to respond directly to concerns about Maria Brnovich’s name on his petitions. He is expected to be in court today for a hearing on a lawsuit challenging his place on the ballot.

“We are not going to litigate this through the media,” Syms said in a prepared statement. “We look forward to having people under oath in court.”

This month, The Arizona Republic reported that dozens of voters listed as signatories on Syms’ nomination petitions said they did not, in fact, sign the forms.

Syms is running in one of the state’s most hotly contested races. District 28 is a swing district that encompasses parts of north-central Phoenix, Arcadia, Biltmore and Paradise Valley.

The controversy escalated last week when Robert McGee, the husband of incumbent Republican state Sen. Kate Brophy McGee — Syms’ chief rival in the Senate race — filed a lawsuit alleging widespread fraud.

Candidates in Arizona must collect signatures from voters to appear on the ballot. McGee alleges that at least 914 of the 2,156 signatures Syms submitted are “forgeries.”

The lawsuit argues that other signatures are invalid because they lack addresses, actual dates, legible names or otherwise don’t meet legal requirements. In total, the lawsuit claims at least 1,676 signatures are invalid due to forgery or other issues.

In District 28, an independent candidate must submit at least 1,250 to qualify for the ballot.