- Chadwick Kluttz of North Carolina pleaded no contest to forgery charges related to Prop 4 repeal effort.
- He faced 11 forgery counts and 11 counts of unlawfully signing a certificate of nomination signature sheet.
- Prosecutors dropped 20 charges as part of plea agreement.
VERNAL — A North Carolina man has pleaded no contest to two charges of forgery after being charged with forging signatures while working in Utah on the recent effort to repeal Proposition 4.
Chadwick Kluttz, 40, was charged in Utah's 8th District Court in March with 11 counts of forgery, a third-degree felony, and 11 counts of unlawfully signing a certificate of nomination signature sheet, a class A misdemeanor. The charges related to signature gathering work he did in Vernal and elsewhere in Uintah County as part of the push to overturn Utah's anti-gerrymandering law.
Kluttz pleaded no contest to two third-degree felony forgery charges on May 24, meaning he did not admit guilt but accepted the punishment associated with the crimes, according to a plea agreement filed with the court. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to drop the remaining 20 charges.
Both charges will be held in abeyance for two years, which means if Kluttz pays a $1,000 fee, appears in court when required and doesn't commit any other crimes, the charges will be dismissed. The plea in abeyance can also be ended after a year if all those obligations are met, according to court filings.
Kluttz worked to gather signatures to repeal Proposition 4 in Utah between Dec. 30, 2025, and Jan. 19, according to initial charging documents. The repeal effort ultimately failed to qualify for the ballot after falling short of the signature threshold.
The charges alleged that he turned in several packets of signatures, some of which may have been fraudulent.
"In total, there were 305 signatures collected and 165 possible fraudulent signatures," according to a court affidavit filed March 26. "All of the packets were signed by Chad Kluttz out of North Carolina."
Investigators spoke with nine individuals whose signatures were in those packets who "confirmed that it was not their signature and they did not authorize anyone to sign the packet on their behalf," the charging documents state. "Two of the individuals who had signed packets were dead and had died prior to the date the packet showed as being signed."
The Uintah County chief deputy attorney charged Kluttz in March, and a judge signed an arrest warrant on April 1. Kluttz had left the state by the time the charges and warrant were filed, according to Vernal police.
He was later arrested in North Carolina but released according to state law.
Kluttz did not immediately respond to a request for comment through social media.
