Republican Candidate Paid Accused Forger to Collect Signatures To Get Name on Ballot

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The Republican running to replace Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) in Congress allegedly paid an accused forger to collect ballot signatures for him, according to Politico.

Anthony Constantino, who runs The Sticker Mule printing company, told Politico’s New York Playbook PM that he “had to enlist paid canvassers to circulate petitions door-to-door to get him on the ballot.”

That’s because he said the local GOP hasn’t endorsed his candidacy against GOP Assemblyman Robert Smullen.

According to the report, Constantino hired a man named Christopher Bernstein, who was arrested in 2014 for allegedly forging signatures on a different candidate’s ballot petition.

In 2012, Bernstein pleaded guilty to “possession of a forged instrument” involving a fake drug prescription.

On Thursday, Constantino said he has a paid “petition manager” who contracts the signature gatherers, but said he didn’t know who Bernstein was.

“A video reviewed by Playbook shows Bernstein collecting signatures in Fort Edward, Washington County, for Constantino without saying the candidate’s name,” the report said. “Bernstein identifies himself as door knocking ‘on behalf of the Republican Party’ — despite the fact that the Washington County GOP unanimously endorsed Smullen over Constantino.”

Constantino told Playbook that he fired Bernstein when he learned of his background.

In a statement, Constantino said, “We were not aware of this person’s background and have decided to terminate them effective immediately. All petitions they acquired have been set aside and will be reviewed by my legal team. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.”

Stefanik announced in December that she was dropping out of the New York gubernatorial race and would not seek re-election to her House seat.

Stefanik posted a statement on X saying, “While we would have overwhelmingly won this primary, it is not an effective use of our time or your generous resources to spend the first half of next year in an unnecessary and protracted Republican primary, especially in a challenging state like New York.”

President Donald Trump initially chose Stefanik to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but later pulled the nomination to protect the narrow Republican majority in the House.

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