Some really good news for now — 5 republican candidates, two for governor, failed to collect enough valid signatures to qualify to be on the primary ballot this August. The Board of State Canvassers upheld the decision of the MI Bureau of Elections’ recommendation that 5 out of the 10 republican candidates in the August primary didn’t meet the requirements of enough valid signatures on their filing papers. It was not a high bar, 15,000 signatures were needed. The bureau also stated that they were unaware of any other election cycle with so many invalid signatures and that so many candidates were involved.
The Board of Canvassers, made up of 2 Democrats and 2 republicans, deadlocked of course along party lines. So the Director of Elections stated that the candidates were not on the ballot. Of course, they can file a lawsuit to be put on the ballot.
The republican candidates who couldn’t follow the rules are Detroit police chief james craig, businessman perry johnson, michael brown, donna brandenburg and michael markey. These 5 wanted filed to run for governor. The two who were considered real contenders for the republican nomination are craig and johnson.
They way the elections bureau staff identified the fraudulent signatures was typical. They identified 36 petition circulators who submitted about 68,000 invalid signatures on mulitple petitions for multiple offices in what amounts to forgeries of signatures. The bureau doesn’t believe the candidates or the campaigns were aware of what these circulators were doing (I find it hard to believe someone on the campaigns didn’t pick up on it because they should be checking for valid signatures). Regardless, these candidates didn’t have enough valid signatures to qualify.
Of course, the republicans are fighting this claiming partisanship, voter disenfranchisement and choice. That’s ironic coming from a party that does everything to suppress the vote. If signatures are fradulent, it’s impossible to claim disenfranchisement. This will now play out in court. But for now, it’s a small victory against the corruption of the party.