JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – The Missouri secretary of state’s office says it referred several cases of potential fraud to local prosecutors this year involving an initiative petition drive about early voting.

A report from Secretary of State Jason Kander says the names of some deceased people had been signed on petitions seeking to qualify the early voting measure for the ballot. It says other people’s names also were listed who did not actually sign the petition.

Kander’s office says it referred the irregularities to prosecutors in Boone, Buchanan, Cooper, Grundy, Knox, Pike and Schuyler counties.

Republican political consultant Jeff Roe says he commissioned his own review of the signatures and found an even larger number of potentially fraudulent ones than had been identified by state officials.

The early voting measure did not make the November ballot.