![]() Lawyer George Lewis also said the campaign acknowledges it appears there was fraud by the people who gathered signatures, but said Craig himself is a victim.ĭemocratic board member Mary Ellen Gurewitz pushed back. The Republicans who remain on the ballot are Dixon, who recently was endorsed by the family of former Trump administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, real estate agent Ryan Kelley, businessman Kevin Rinke, pastor Ralph Rebandt and chiropractor Garrett Soldano.Īn attorney for Craig said Thursday he has signed affidavits from 15 registered voters whose signatures were determined to be forged, but who say they did sign the candidate’s petition. They identified 36 petition circulators - who are often paid per signature gathered - who submitted petition sheets made up entirely of invalid signatures. Staff said that while it’s typical for petitions to include scattered instances of dubious signatures, “the Bureau is unaware of another election cycle” with such a “substantial volume” of fraudulent signatures involving multiple candidates. In a report released late Monday, bureau staff said multiple petition sheets for various candidates “displayed suspicious patterns indicative of fraud.” Some of the petitions for Craig’s campaign, for example, had signatures that all appeared to be written in the same handwriting. But the bureau, which is part of Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s department, said it discovered the fraud in its own review and didn’t process the challenges filed by the Michigan Democratic Party and Dixon.Ĭandidates for governor were required to submit valid signatures from 15,000 registered voters to make the ballot. Another Republican candidate, Tudor Dixon, had also contested Craig’s voter signatures as fake. Brown withdrew from the race on Tuesday.ĭemocrats challenged the GOP candidates’ petitions, alleging mass forgery and other issues. The other lesser-known GOP candidates - Donna Brandenburg, Michael Brown and Michael Markey - also were found ineligible after elections staff said they, too, didn’t turn in enough valid signatures. Attorney Jason Torchinsky said the state’s process had “fatal flaws that didn’t follow election law” and that he’s confident Johnson will be on the ballot after the court review. Johnson has already spent millions of his personal fortune on the contest. He said the campaign will file an “immediate appeal.”Ĭedar Rapids man convicted of Capitol riot charges The vote by the bipartisan Board of State Canvassers was 2-2, with two Democrats supporting the recommendation and two Republicans saying the candidates should get on the ballot.Ĭraig criticized the board’s partisan decision as “a travesty” and said the bureau should have done a line-by-line verification of signatures he submitted, rather than rejecting entire pages based on its findings of fraud. ![]() The state elections bureau recommended they be disqualified, saying it found thousands of fraudulent signatures on petitions submitted by the candidates. Gretchen Whitmer in the battleground state this fall.įormer Detroit Police Chief James Craig, who has led in most primary polls, and businessman Perry Johnson, along with three other lesser-known candidates, did not qualify for the ballot. Two of the leading candidates for the GOP nomination for Michigan governor say they will ask the courts to intervene after they were found ineligible Thursday for the August primary, reshaping the race to challenge Democratic Gov. ![]()
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