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Another notary public said Thursday his name was forged on mayoral nominating petitions -- this time involving nearly 2,000 petition sheets submitted by three mayoral candidates: Carol Moseley Braun, James Meeks and Patricia Van Pelt-Watkins.

Braun and Watkins are the latest candidates to be stung by the forgery problem. The Chicago Sun-Times earlier this week found suspect notary signatures on petitions submitted by Meeks and Rick Halpin, another mayoral hopeful.

Currency-exchange owner Alex Caplan of Park Ridge is the second notary public to tell the Sun-Times he didn't sign or stamp petition sheets that bear his name and notary seal. Braun, Meeks and Watkins submitted a total of 1,913 petitions with Caplan listed as a notary.

And like Maricela Rodriguez -- a notary from Aurora who said Tuesday her faked signature also inexplicably ended up on Chicago nominating sheets -- Caplan's real signature on government documents looks nothing like the signatures on petition sheets the Sun-Times reviewed.

Also, the Sun-Times found even more mayoral petitions bearing Rodriguez's apparently faked signature and notary stamp. Braun, Halpin, Meeks and Watkins submitted a total of 877 petitions allegedly notarized by Rodriguez.

Both Braun and Watkins say the petitions in question were assembled by Tyrone Tucker, a consultant each paid to gather signatures. Meeks has said he too hired Tucker, along with another consultant, Bishop C.L. Sparks.

By law, circulators must sign their petitions in the presence of a notary, who then signs each petition, too.

Watkins asked that her petitions be notarized at her office. So Tucker, who couldn't be reached for comment, apparently sent over a man who identified himself as Caplan to do the job.

"A person who represented himself to us as Alex Caplan came to our office at Patricia's request and notarized the signatures," said Mike Truppa, Watkins' spokesman. "We didn't ask for his driver's license to confirm he was Alex Caplan."

He wasn't. The man who notarized the petitions was black. Caplan is white.

"I haven't been anywhere to notarize anything," Caplan said.

Caplan and Rodriguez are listed as notaries on petitions circulated for Meeks and Halpin by Arthur J. Hardy Jr., a homeless ex-con, who says he used other homeless people to gather voters' signatures. Hardy told Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown on Wednesday that all those petitions were notarized by two black men.

There are 20 candidates running for mayor, and each needed to file 12,500 signatures from registered city voters to get on the ballot.

Watkins had the most petition sheets listed as being notarized by Caplan and Rodriguez. Of 4,078 sheets she submitted, Caplan's name is on 891 and Rodriguez's on 181.

Braun submitted 4,559 sheets, with Caplan's name on 706 and Rodriguez's on 333.

Meeks put in 4,691 petitions, including 316 with Caplan's name and 97 with Rodriguez's.

Halpin submitted 1,185 sheets, with 266 bearing Rodriguez's name. None of Halpin's petitions included Caplan.

Meeks is now calling for a criminal investigation into the forgery matter.

"Forgery of a person's notary stamp or signature is wrong, so from that perspective, I guess this revelation has been good," he said. "You could actually hurt a person's campaign that means well by doing that. Whoever the proper authorities are, whoever is supposed to look at that, should be and will be looking at that. I would fully investigate."

Contributing: Abdon M. Pallasch