Rodriguez reminded Carroll that he was unelected. But Rodriguez had nothing to do with verification of the ward-only signatures. In fact she was on vacation. Larry Bahill, a former county elections director and now Rodriguez's voter registrar, handled most of the oversight along with Rodriguez's chief deputy, Bob Jones. The petitions in question could include up to 3,000 signatures.
Some pages released by city officials indeed look suspicious.
There are four pages with repeat names in different styles of signatures or printing. Bahill and petition organizers attribute that to error on the part of passers who were circulating petitions for a number of initiatives. Petitions for the same issue were mistakenly placed before signers, they claim. But those signatures were stricken, Bahill and Rodriguez say. No investigation was ordered in that matter, Rodriguez points out.