{"id":4130,"date":"2026-07-02T22:35:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T22:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4130"},"modified":"2026-07-02T22:35:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T22:35:44","slug":"their-signatures-helped-get-republican-candidates-on-the-ballot-they-say-they-never-actually-signed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=4130","title":{"rendered":"Their signatures helped get Republican candidates on the ballot. They say they never actually signed."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Andrew Tamburello\u2019s signature was one of hundreds from voters purportedly living in Weymouth that Anne Manning Martin submitted to local officials to help get her name on the Republican primary ballot as a candidate for lieutenant governor. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read more A grand jury indicts Louisiana\u2019s attorney general in a fight over changes to the local courts<\/a><\/p>\n

That was news to Tamburello, who has been living in Florida for more than a year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was definitely not me,\u201d Tamburello, 39, said in a phone interview from Ocala, Fla., where he moved in February 2025. \u201cI actually support Republicans. I used to support [President Donald] Trump. But not anymore. Unfortunately, I don\u2019t trust anybody anymore. It stinks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Tamburello is one of a dozen people who, in interviews with the Globe, said they did not sign nomination papers for Manning Martin or Michael Walsh, a Republican candidate for attorney general, even though their signatures \u2014 tied to their current or former addresses in Weymouth \u2014appear on documents submitted by the two Republicans\u2019 campaigns.<\/span><\/p>\n

A state commission in June ruled that hundreds of signatures turned in by Manning Martin and Walsh this year were \u201clikely fraudulent\u201d or \u201cnon-genuine,\u201d and barred them from appearing on the September primary ballot. <\/span><\/p>\n

The commission\u2019s rulings decimated the Republican ticket this year, leaving the party with candidates on the ballot for just three of the six statewide constitutional offices. Both Manning Martin and Walsh have appealed the decisions, with Walsh submitting several appeals, including to the state\u2019s highest court and the US Supreme Court, citing technical errors to the challenge to his signatures. <\/span><\/p>\n

The allegations have also drawn the attention of police and prosecutors. At least two district attorney\u2019s offices are investigating, officials told the Globe. Submitting fraudulent signatures is illegal in Massachusetts, with punishments ranging from a $1,000 fine to up to a year in jail. <\/span><\/p>\n

Local clerks from other towns, including Scituate, Hanover, and Rockland, had also flagged that signatures submitted to them were potentially fraudulent.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many of the people whose signatures appeared on the nomination papers and spoke to the Globe said they did not consider themselves politically active. Others said they found it troubling, even \u201ccrazy,\u201d their signatures had been used without their permission.<\/span><\/p>\n

A signature purporting to be from Teresa Donnelly appeared on one of Walsh\u2019s signature sheets. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t write that,\u201d Donnellysaid in an interview. \u201cI don\u2019t even vote.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bernie Connaughton\u2019s signature appears in both Walsh and Manning Martin\u2019s nomination papers. But Connaughton said he doesn\u2019t know either of the two Republicans, and said he did not sign nomination papers for them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not right,\u201d Connaughton said. \u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous. That shouldn\u2019t be happening.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Manning Martin\u2019s campaign declined to comment. Walsh shared copies of his appeals he filed to the commission\u2019s ruling, but did not directly respond to a text message or a phone call seeking comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

The state commission based its rulings knocking Manning Martin and Walsh from the ballot on testimony from two experts \u2014 longtime Massachusetts-based signature gatherer Harold Hubschman and Jennifer Naso, a forensics expert who used to work for the US Secret Service as a document analyst.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Walsh\u2019s case, Naso told the commission that most of the signatures on Walsh\u2019s nomination papers from Weymouth and Scituate \u201cwere written by the same person.\u201d In his testimony, Hubschman said there were dozens of nomination papers from Manning Martin and Walsh that listed signatures in \u201cidentical order.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cMr. Hubschman concludes the mathematical likelihood of this occurring is zero and that these signatures are likely fraudulent,\u201d the commission wrote in its ruling on Manning Martin\u2019s signatures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, both candidates also had nomination papers that listed signatures in the order they appeared in a voter database used by the Massachusetts Republican Party to help candidates find supporters.<\/span><\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Plymouth County District Attorney\u2019s office said Thursday there is an \u201cactive and ongoing\u201d investigation into signatures submitted in Scituate, Hanover, and Rockland. The Norfolk County District Attorney\u2019s office is, too, investigating, including into signatures submitted in Weymouth, said David Linton, a spokesperson for the office.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the center of the scandal is Joe Bronske, who owns the company Ancestors\u2019 Trail Genealogy, and was paid thousands of dollars by Walsh and Manning Martin\u2019s campaigns to collect signatures on their behalf, according to state records. <\/span><\/p>\n

Bronske, who until recently served as chair of the Weymouth Republican Town Committee, did not respond to multiple requests for comment Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bronske was also enlisted by Anne Brensley, the Massachusetts Republican Party\u2019s endorsed candidate for lieutenant governor, to help collect the 10,000 signatures she needed to get on the ballot. But Brensley ultimately did not have enough to qualify and accused Bronske of failing to gather the number of signatures she had paid him for, and turning in some that were forged \u2014 including some, she told the commission, that belonged to voters who had long since died.<\/span><\/p>\n

During a deposition in June ahead of the ballot commission\u2019s hearings, Bronske did not directly answer questions about his \u201cdirect participation in forging voter signatures\u201d or \u201chis knowledge of anyone else forging voter signatures,\u201d according to the commission.<\/span><\/p>\n

Instead, in response to questions from a lawyer for GOP lieutenant governor candidate Shawn Oliver \u2014 who challenged Manning Martin\u2019s place on the ballot \u2014 Bronske invoked his 5th Amendment rights, which provide for protection against self-incrimination.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTaking the 5th demonstrates to the commission that Mr. Bronske has something to hide,\u201d the panel wrote in its ruling.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an appeal she filed in Essex Superior Court on Wednesday, Manning Martin argued she was blocked from the ballot \u201cwithout any live testimony witnesses confirming their signatures were forged.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Several, in fact, told the Globe they were. <\/span><\/p>\n

Rachael Wayland\u2019s signature and address appear on one of Manning Martin\u2019s signature papers from Weymouth. But Wayland said she has \u201cnever even heard\u201d of Manning Martin and \u201cdid not\u201d sign the nomination paper.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I\u2019m not even a really good voter at all, so I don\u2019t know why it would be on there,\u201d Wayland, 47, said in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

Signatures and addresses connected to Tess Abboud, as well as at least two of her family members, were listed in Walsh\u2019s signature sheets.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s crazy. We definitely did not sign anything,\u201d she said in an interview. \u201cI definitely did not. I don\u2019t believe my family would have signed for that kind of a candidate either.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Matt Stout of the Globe staff contributed to this report.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A dozen people told the Globe that they did not sign nomination papers to help get two statewide Republican candidates on the ballot despite their names and signatures being listed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nTheir signatures helped get Republican candidates on the ballot. 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