When he turned in some 1,600 signatures last month, Eric Nelson said it demonstrated “strong grassroots support from voters” across the district and a “growing momentum” for his “inclusive, community-centered leadership.”

On Thursday, the Secretary of State rejected Nelson’s petition to get on the House District 42 ballot in Aurora, where he is one of four Democrats vying for the party’s nomination.

Election officials said of the 1,635 he submitted, only 29, or 1.77%, were determined to be from people who live in the district, who were Democrats and whose voter registration could be verified.

The 29 verified signatures fell well short of the 1,000 required to get onto the ballot.

Colorado Politics cross-checked some of the names listed as having signed Nelson’s petition. Most could not be found at all. Several names were the same as current or recent high school athletes. One name was the same as someone who died in the Aurora theater shooting in 2012.

At least 120 lines had either no first or last name, or no name at all. But each line had an address, the date the petition was signed and the date the circulator also signed the petition. One line simply listed the name as “N.”

Of the 1,635 signatures, no voter registration could be found for at least 939 signatures. 

Nelson said he is disappointment with the invalidation of a “portion” of his petition. He said he would continue to seek the seat through the assembly process on March 3.

He did not address why so many invalid signatures were submitted, citing a confidentiality agreement with the petition circulator.

The circulator is Touchstone, a company based in Minneapolis, which is circulating petitions for candidates in Colorado.

Its founder, Nathan Daniel Bowman, did not respond to a request for an explanation.

Touchstone is also collecting petition signatures for Heidi Henkel, who is running for House District 33 in Broomfield, and Matt Cavanaugh, a Democratic candidate for Congressional District 5 in El Paso County. 

This is Nelson’s third attempt at the HD 42 seat. The first was in 2016, when he was a member of the Aurora school board.

The school board censured him in 2016 for allegedly falsifying his academic record, removed him as board secretary and stripped him of his board-authorized credit card.

Nelson claimed he had multiple advanced degrees; none of them could be verified. An updated biography in 2017 claimed degrees from three more institutions, but none of those degrees could be verified, either. Two of the institutions said they have never heard of him; the third said he was enrolled but had not graduated.

Nelson, who served in the Air Force for two months, claimed to have earned military honors. Then-U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman had called for a “stolen valor” investigation on Nelson.

The House District 42 race includes three other Democratic candidates: incumbent Rep. Mandy Lindsay, Megan Siffring and Sarah Woodson.