SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A Sacramento man is accused of using address information from petitions to pursue a romantic encounter with a woman without her consent, the office of Secretary of State Debra Bowen said.

The District Attorney's office has charged petition circulator John Edward James of Sacramento with one count of misusing petition signatures and another charge of perjury for allegedly falsifying the signature collection date on one of his petitions.

James was scheduled to be arraigned in Sacramento Superior Court on Friday afternoon.

"By all accounts, this is an isolated incident of someone misusing signature information, but voters should know that elections officials vigorously guard their private information," Bowen said in a prepared statement.

The allegations against James first arose last month when a petition management company contacted the secretary of state's election fraud investigation unit to report the woman's complaint.

The company said James, who was one of the company's contract employees, had tried to meet up with a woman who had signed some of his petitions outside of a bank.

The investigation revealed that James and the woman had recognized each other as fifth-grade classmates and started chatting while in line at the bank.

Once outside, the woman signed five initiative petitions James was circulating.

That evening, James allegedly retrieved the woman's address information from his petitions and visited her gated apartment complex. A security guard turned James away.

The woman, who was unharmed, called police and reported the incident.