Las Vegas man charged over bogus signatures on Green Party petition

A man trying to help the Green Party get its candidates on the Nevada ballot is accused of falsifying signatures and listing people's addresses on a petition without their permission, according to an indictment announced on Thursday.

A Clark County grand jury indicted Las Vegas resident Renaldo Johnson, 55, on 15 felony counts, including perjury and obtaining and using personal identifying information of another. A warrant has been issued for his arrest, according to the Nevada Attorney General's Office.

A phone number for Johnson couldn't be located.

Authorities said Johnson had been working as a signature gatherer in the Nevada Green Party's effort to get its candidates on the ballot through a petition. The indictment says the forgeries happened in May and early June, and Johnson swore that the signatures were legitimate when he turned them in.

The petition effort ultimately fell short and Green Party candidates including presidential hopeful Jill Stein did not appear on Nevada's general election ballot.

Nevada Green Party Executive Committee Co-Chair Kim Borghese said she believes several signature gatherers hired to help with the petition were involved in putting forward bogus signatures. The party needed 5,431 signatures to qualify for the ballot, but 3,736 of the 8,520 entries on the petition were disqualified.

A court rejected the party's later attempt to submit more signatures.

Borghese said she was happy that people were being held accountable for actions she believes kept the party off the ballot.

"We felt seriously injured by the whole thing," she told The Associated Press.

The Nevada Secretary of State's Office investigated the case. Deputy Secretary of State Gail Anderson and officials from the attorney general's office declined to say whether additional people are expected to face legal consequences in the matter.