Arno Political Consultants

Arno Political Consultants was founded by Michael Arno in 1979 and, according to its website, has collected over 120 million signatures over the past 28 years. Arno counts among its clients several Fortune 500 companies as well as two US Presidents and numerous Governors and Members of Congress. Arno is known as one of the largest and most successful signature gathering firms in the country. Despite their impressive client list and years of experience, Arno is also known for something else: illegalities in their signature gathering practices. What follows is an overview of some to the alleged illegal actions Arno has perpetrated on unsuspecting voters in numerous states.

Fraud allegations from attorneys general and boards of elections in five states that Arno has racked up since we began tracking signature fraud in 2004:

• hiring circulators who lied to the public;
• submitting fraudulent petitions;
• submitting petitions with signatures from the dead;
• illegally registering college students as Republicans;
• training circulators in "bait-and-switch" tactics;
• hosting a ‘fraud party' where circulators were taught to forge signatures onto petitions;
• circulating petitions that were different from the initiative submitted to the Secretary of state;
• violating a state's law that prohibits paying circulators by the number of signatures they collect.

Click on this link to download a printable report: Abusing Direct Democracy: Bad Actors in the Signature Gathering Process (PDF)

California

• 2006. Elections officials suspected fraudulent signatures in the petitions Arno collected regarding an initiative that would force a June vote among SMUD customers on whether the public-power utility should expand into Yolo County. During a routine signature verification, 32.2 percent out of the 1,600 signatures were found invalid, a percentage which caused election officials to have to examine every signature. ("Petitions spur suspicions" Sacramento Bee. February 17, 2006)
• 2007. A Los Angeles city attorney is hired to investigate a report that Arno, the signature gathering group hired to circulate the Republican backed and funded Electoral College Reform Initiative, had offered food to homeless people in exchange for signing the petitions. As the campaign struggled to get a sufficient number of signatures to qualify, observations were made that signature gatherers were asking homeless people on the city's notorious Skid Row for their signatures to help qualify the electoral vote in exchange for Snickers bars, instant noodles and other snack foods. ("Opponents of California Ballot Initiative Seek Inquiry," New York Times. November 21, 2007. Link)

Florida

• 2004. An election worker found her own forged signature amidst petitions gathered by Arno. Arno was hired to gather petitions to repeal a high speed bullet train (DEBT) in addition to gathering signatures for an initiative to cap trial attorney fees, and one to allow slot machines at horse race tracks in south Florida. Almost 400 suspected forgeries were reported in Okaloosa County with 132 names repeatedly forged. ("Officials Investigate Signatures Panhandle Ballot Petitions Seem Falsified." The News-Press Tallahassee Bureau. June 29, 2004. Link)

• 2004. Signatures of dead individuals are found on petitions gathered by Arno that would put slot machines at horse race tracks. Arno claims it is not responsible ("Names of the Dead Found on Petitions." St. Petersburg Times. September 28, 2004)

• 2004. The National Republican Committee hired Arno to register students and as a result about 4,000 students may have been improperly registered. Student accounts mention signature gathers using pre-marked republican voter registration cards or simply checking the republican box for the student. ("Students complain of false party swap." St. Petersburg Times. October 23, 2004)

Massachusetts

• 2005. Arno, hired to gather signatures to put an anti-gay marriage measure on the ballot, was accused of using "bait-and-switch" tactics in order to gain signatures from voters. In each case, the voters said they were asked to sign a ballot question about the sale of wine in grocery stores and were then told to sign a second sheet of paper without being told it was the anti-gay marriage amendment. In some cases they said told the second sheet was a "back up" sheet for the wine question. Arno president Michael Arno said he'd never heard of the alleged bait-and-switch tactics. ("Supporters, Foes of Gay Marriage Trade Dirty Tricks Charges." Associated Press. October 18, 2005. Link)

• 2005. Angela McElroy, a Florida college student who worked as a paid signature gatherer and who said her boss taught her how to deceive voters by arranging both petitions on her clip board so she could ask voters to sign twice, once knowingly for the wine question, and the second unknowingly for the anti-gay marriage petition. (Link)

Nevada

• 2006. Arno was hired to circulate TASC petitions (TASC was the Nevada version of what was being circulated as the Taxpayer Bill of Rights in other states). The circulation of TASC in Nevada led to an affidavit from a circulator who stated that he and approximately 100 others attended a "fraud party" over Memorial Day Weekend where they were taught how to copy signatures onto their petitions and ways to avoid detection. Other cases of signature fraud were highlighted by the group opposing TASC including cases where the same person signed more than once, where multiple names were in identical handwriting, where signers' addresses didn't match their names or where petitions weren't properly notarized. ("TASC Opponents Seek Investigation." Las Vegas Review Journal. August 23, 2006)

Oregon

• 2004. Arno signature gathers are accused of misleading voters in order for them to sign a regulatory takings initiative (Measure 37) by calling it an eminent domain issue. Arno claims it gives its circulators a pitch sheet and does not take responsibility for what individuals come up with to say on their own. ("Rouge of the Week: Arno Political Consulting." Willamette Week. February 25, 2004. Link)

• 2006. Oregon Elections Division told Arno that its method of compensating petition carriers for several Oregon initiatives including TABOR and term limits appears to violate the state ban on paying per signature. Elections Division received complaints about Arno's payment structure, under which someone who collects 13-16 signatures per hour gets $17 per hour while someone who collects 31-45 signatures gets $43 an hour. ("State questions signature gathering" Albany Democrat Herald. June 22, 2006. Link)

• 2006. It is uncovered that Arno is paying homeless people to gather signatures for the TABOR initiative. Don McIntire, the head of the Taxpayer Association of Oregon and a chief petitioner on the TABOR initiative, said his campaign wasn't liable for the way his signatures were gathered and claimed that he made Arno sign an agreement that they wouldn't pay per signature. As a result of the scandal, Arno declared it won't be back in Oregon on account of the ban on pay per signature law. ("The Price of Democracy." Portland Mercury. July 13, 2006. Link)

Washington

• 2003. Arno circulators, carrying a petition sponsored by the Building Industry Association of Washington, were found to be misleading voters with false information regarding the petition they were signing. Arno co-owner Bill Arno stated that he would fire anyone who made false statements about an initiative, but he has no way of keeping track of the 150 circulators all over Washington. ("Signature Gathers Take Far Too Much Initiative." Spokesman Review.com. May 9, 2003. Link)

Fraud Wire