Caught on camera: Littleton mayoral hopeful accused of tampering with campaign signs

By Noah Festenstein | The Denver Gazette

A Littleton voter group has accused a mayoral candidate of stealing opposing campaign information from the front porch of a home.

Littleton Councilmember Patrick Driscoll, who is vying with Mayor Kyle Schlachter for the city’s mayoral seat in the Nov. 4 election, was spotted on a home camera dropping off his own campaign information before taking a small flyer that was already on the door, according to a Littleton Voter news release.

Driscoll took the flyer, sparking “widespread condemnation throughout the community,” according to the release.

“This is not just unethical — it’s illegal,” Alex Burkey, a Littleton resident, said in a statement. “If a candidate is willing to violate a resident’s property and interfere with their political expression during the campaign, how can we trust them to uphold the law in office?”

Colorado election interference laws apply to actions within 45 days prior or four days after an election. Any person found guilty of interference with cards, pamphlets, posters, yard signs or candidate materials must pay for the cost of replacement, according to Colorado law.

Littleton Voter officials said the flyer Driscoll took “supported another candidate in the current mayoral race.”

Driscoll’s campaign did not deny removing a flyer from a home but said it was a flyer opposing the contentious ballot measure 3A. The video showed he grabbed a flyer supporting four city council candidates, including Schlachter’s name.

Littleton ballot measure 3A seeks to alter the city’s land use restrictions by keeping the city from developing multiplexes, or more, in single-family zoned neighborhoods.

“I shouldn’t have removed it and I apologize,” Driscoll, through a spokesperson, told The Denver Gazette in an email.

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