The state’s top elections official on Thursday referred fraud allegations against repeat US Senate hopeful Shiva Ayyadurai to state prosecutors, saying he received “several complaints” that the independent candidate submitted fraudulent signatures to local officials in an effort to qualify for the November ballot — including the signature of one of the clerks herself.
Secretary of State William F. Galvin’s office sent the referral to Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office, charging that clerks in seven Massachusetts communities — Boylston, Clinton, Concord, Stow, Townsend, Wakefield, and Woburn — raised concerns that some of the signatures Ayyadurai’s campaign submitted appeared to have been “written by the same hand.”
Woburn’s city clerk told Galvin’s office that she saw her own name among the signatures submitted by Ayyadurai’s campaign, even though she said “unequivocally” that she had never signed the document, according to Galvin’s letter.
In Wakefield, the town clerk reported finding her husband’s name on the papers submitted to her office, Galvin wrote, “yet she confirmed with him that he did not sign such papers.”
And in Clinton, the town clerk forwarded Galvin’s office an email from a voter who said she had been approached outside a market in Hudson and asked to sign a petition. The voter said the person collecting signatures told her she could sign other people’s names on the sheets — a violation of state law. The voter later reported the incident to Hudson police, according to Galvin’s letter.
It’s unclear what, if any, action Campbell’s office will take. A spokesperson for the first-term Democrat said her office had received the referral and was reviewing it.
Ayyadurai could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.
Ayyadurai, a scientist and entrepreneur who holds four degrees from MIT, has repeatedly sought a US Senate seat, to no avail. He ran as an independent candidate in 2018, losing to US Senator Elizabeth Warren, before trying again in 2020, this time running as a Republican. He lost the nomination to Kevin O’Connor, a Dover business lawyer who later lost in that November’s general election to Senator Ed Markey.
Ayyadurai unsuccessfully sued Galvin’s office in the wake of the 2020 election, seeking to block certification of the results and accusing Galvin of ordering electronic images of ballots to be destroyed.
Ayyadurai also ran for president in 2024, earning 18,418 in Massachusetts. Kamala Harris carried the state with more than 2.1 million votes that year.
The allegations are the latest in a series of signature controversies to hit Massachusetts candidates this election cycle.
Former Suffolk County district attorney Rachael Rollins, who lost her bid to lead the office in last week’s Democratic primary, submitted nomination papers containing signatures from several Chelsea city councilors who told the Globe they had never signed them.
Allegations of fraudulent signatures knocked one GOP lieutenant governor candidate from the Republican primary ballot and prompted investigations by district attorneys in Norfolk and Plymouth counties.
Attorney general candidate Michael Walsh, one of the Republicans caught up in that controversy, was ultimately allowed to remain on the ballot even after a lower-court judge found “substantial evidence” that his campaign had submitted fake signatures to help him qualify.
Campbell, who is facing Walsh in the November election, called on him to withdraw over the allegations.
“Here is someone who unlawfully and fraudulently obtained signatures to appear on the ballot,” said Campbell, who reported paying signature gatherers to help her qualify for the ballot, according to campaign finance records. “How do you run for attorney general? You are the chief law enforcement officer of the state, of the Commonwealth, and you just broke the law to get on the ballot.”
Samantha J. Gross of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Kelly Garrity can be reached at kelly.garrity@globe.com.