Why petition circulators matter in New Jersey elections

A candidate’s nominating petition is supposed to demonstrate, at least minimally, that real voters support putting a real candidacy before the electorate.

But signatures alone do not establish how that support was obtained, whether voters understood what they were signing, or whether the candidate is running a genuine campaign rather than serving as a stalking horse for someone else.

That is where petition circulators come in.

New Jersey requires the person collecting signatures to identify themselves and submit an affidavit attesting that they personally circulated the petition, witnessed the signatures, and believe the signers are qualified voters.  The affidavit is signed before a notary or another authorized official.

The notary does not independently verify each voter’s signature.  Rather, notarization establishes that an identifiable person swore to the circumstances under which the signatures were collected.

That distinction matters: if questions arise about forged names, confused voters, phantom candidacies or undisclosed political operatives, election officials, challengers, journalists and prosecutors know whom to ask.

A notarized circulator affidavit cannot prevent every deception. But it ensures that when a petition contains fabricated signatures, confused supporters, or evidence of a manufactured candidacy, there is a real person attached to the paper trail — someone who swore the process was legitimate and can be asked to explain it.

The 2023 race in South Jersey’s 4th legislative district offered a particularly vivid example.

Giuseppe Costanzo and Maureen Dukes-Penrose appeared on the ballot as independent conservatives despite conducting little recognizable campaign activity.  Costanzo’s candidacy benefited from advertising by Jersey Freedom, a shadowy political committee that urged conservatives to abandon Republican Christopher Del Borrello in a competitive State Senate race against Democrat Paul Moriarty.

One of the circulators who helped place Costanzo and Dukes-Penrose on the ballot was Angela McGeehan, the daughter of longtime Washington Township Democratic chairman Frank Cianci, a Moriarty ally.  McGeehan collected more than one-third of their petition signatures.

When initially contacted by the New Jersey Globe, McGeehan denied knowing anything about the petitions.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.

But after being reminded that her signature had been notarized, McGeehan changed her response.

“I am not answering any questions,” she said.

Several Gloucester County residents whose names appeared on the petitions said they had never heard of the candidates.  One signer told the Globe that someone had instructed them not to discuss the petition.

Without McGeehan’s affidavit, tracing how the candidates reached the ballot — and identifying connections between their purportedly conservative campaigns and Democratic political figures — would have been considerably harder.

The questions did not end with the petitions.

A judge froze Jersey Freedom’s bank account and barred further voter communications before the election. Its funding was later traced to Brighter Future Forward, an independent expenditure committee tied to South Jersey Democrats.

The attorney general’s office opened a criminal investigation, and the Election Law Enforcement Commission asked a judge to give it jurisdiction over the civil matter.  The judge agreed.  But ELEC never acted before the statute of limitations expired, and the criminal investigation never advanced.

Circulator requirements have also surfaced in disputes over whether political operatives living outside New Jersey may gather signatures here.

In 2025, Green Party gubernatorial candidate Lily Benavides used Geoff Sebesta, a political operative from Winchester, Kentucky, to collect signatures.  The attorney for the Morris County Democrats argued that state law requires circulators to be eligible to vote in New Jersey, potentially disqualifying eighteen petition books witnessed by Sebesta.

Administrative Law Judge Tama Hughes never had to resolve that question. Benavides fell two signatures short of the 2,000 required and ended her campaign.

(Sebesta is on the witness list for a hearing in federal court on Tuesday.)

A similar issue arose in 2024 when American Solidarity Party presidential candidate Peter Sonski relied on Lee Evans, an Arkansas-based political consultant. Administrative Law Judge Judith Lieberman removed Sonski after finding he had only 794 valid signatures, six below the required 800, making a ruling on Evans’ residency unnecessary.

Whether New Jersey can constitutionally exclude out-of-state circulators remains contested; U.S. District Court Judge Zahid Quraishi will decide.

But identifying circulators and requiring sworn statements serve a separate purpose: accountability, regardless of where the person collecting signatures lives.

The consequences of abandoning that accountability are illustrated by James Devine, a controversial, mendacious political gremlin who served as campaign manager and petition circulator for Lisa McCormick’s 2021 Democratic gubernatorial bid.

Witnesses testified that their names appeared on McCormick’s petitions even though they had never signed them.  Prosecutors accused Devine of submitting nearly 2,000 fraudulent signatures.

In 2024, he received two years of probation and a $182 fine.   Devine is McCormick’s common law husband.