Petition Signature Harvesting at Senior Care and Memory-Care FacilitiesDocuments included

Signature harvesting inside Platte County senior-living and memory-care facilities — the public record, page by page

In June 2026, four candidates who had refiled as independents — after failing to properly file their required personal financial disclosures — needed petition signatures to claw their way back onto the November ballot. Public records show exactly where they went to get a large portion of them: the county’s retirement homes, and a memory-care unit for residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia. The sworn petition sheets — filed with the Platte County Board of Elections and reproduced on these pages — tell the story in the circulators’ own handwriting.

On July 17, 2026, Dale Brouk (Presiding Commissioner), Kevin Robinson (Auditor), Holly Cayer (Collector), and Chris Kendall (Treasurer) filed nominating petitions containing 5,012 signature lines. A line-by-line review of all 386 pages found:

570 signature lines — one line in nine — were collected inside six senior-living facilities, in single-day sweeps, including 24 lines from Sage Grove at Tiffany Springs (formerly Benton House), a licensed assisted-living and memory-care facility for residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Per county voter rolls, the memory-care signers average roughly 85 years old.
The lead collector was Melissa Moran — Dale Brouk’s campaign manager, who runs a senior-care business. She swore notarized affidavits on 976 signature lines, exactly 244 per candidate — four clipboards, one operation. 42 percent of everything she collected came from inside senior facilities.
Dale Brouk personally swore more petition sheets than anyone else in the four filings — 1,274 signature lines — including 67 signatures collected in a single day inside the Garden Village senior community, from residents averaging 82 years old.
84 elderly residents signed all four candidates’ petitions in one sitting. Not one page in any of the four filings uses the assistance procedure Missouri law requires when a voter cannot sign — despite page after page of visibly unsteady signatures.
The filings also contain a circulator’s affidavit that was never signed but notarized anyway (in all four filings), a signature dated after its own notarization, petition columns pre-filled with the wrong voters’ names, and an identical fifteen-name roster filed twice for the same candidate.

Every age cited in this investigation is north of 80

Matched against the county voter rolls: the memory-care residents at Sage Grove average roughly 85 years old. The broader group of residents whose signatures Melissa Moran personally swore to collecting averages roughly 83. Even the youngest cohort — the residents Dale Brouk personally signed up himself — averages roughly 82. There is no facility in this operation where the average signer was under 80.

Formal requests for criminal investigation are now in front of the Platte County Prosecuting Attorney, with copies to the Missouri Attorney General, the Missouri Secretary of State’s Elections Division, and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Every document on these pages is a public record you can pull yourself from the Board of Elections. Start with the evidence.

The Evidence →

The numbers, the facility-by-facility table, and the petition pages themselves, embedded and zoomable.

Who Did This →

Melissa Moran, Dale Brouk, and the rest of the “Neighbors First” slate — tied to the exhibits.

“He Was Told He Needed to Sign” →

One resident’s account, and the line on four petitions that carries his name.

Four Agencies Asked to Investigate →

The letters sent to the Platte County Prosecuting Attorney, and who else was copied.

Every Document →

All 14 exhibits and the source filings, full resolution, downloadable.

The Timeline →

From the primary withdrawal to the facility sweeps to the filings and the referrals.

Everything on these pages described as a record fact appears on the face of documents filed with the Platte County Board of Election Commissioners — public records, reproduced here unaltered — or on correspondence sent to law enforcement and government officials, as described on each page. Questions of what individual signers understood, and of anyone’s intent, are allegations that have been referred to law enforcement and state agencies for investigation; no charges have been filed and no agency has announced findings.