Supporters for DA Price ask U.S. Attorney to investigate recall signature fraud claims

Supporters of Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price have requested that the U.S. Attorney for Northern California investigate fraud claims they have levied against organizers behind the recall effort to remove Price. 

The request comes nearly a month after the same team requested that California Attorney General Rob Bonta step in to investigate the claims. The campaign says they did not receive a response from Bonta's office, so the team is escalating their request. 

"We're standing up against the big money backing this effort—real estate and hedge fund tycoons who hide behind people of color as the faces of their campaign. In reality, it's a battle between the rich and the poor. This isn't about victims or public safety; it's about real estate portfolios, property values, and personal gain, as revealed in leaked campaign documents," Price's campaign said. 

The Protect the Win campaign held a press conference on Monday to share details of their claims. The campaign says that some signatures were handled improperly after they were gathered, including a collection of signatures that reportedly left at a salon in Alameda for weeks.  

"Per the charter, when there's signatures being collected, there's supposed to be somebody who is with the signatures at all times," a member of the campaign said. 

The campaign shared a photo of a unmanned table outside of a Target. The campaign claims the table was used for gathering recall signatures. In the photo, no people could be seen overseeing the table.

Last week, Alameda County announced that it would complete a hand recount of the more than 100,000 signatures gathered in the recall effort against Price. Price's campaign seemed to welcome the recount with open arms. 

When KTVU reached out to Price's campaign for comment on the recount, the campaign argued that some of the signatures were given in exchange for cash. 

"This afternoon we learned that despite paying signature gatherers $9 a signature and spending almost $3,000,000, they failed to meet the initial threshold of sufficient signatures to trigger an election."