Two leading Republican candidates for Michigan governor gathered enough valid signatures on their nominating petitions to make the August primary ballot, state election officials have determined. A third candidate did not.
The Michigan Board of State Canvassers Thursday voted to recommend the Secretary of State certify Congressman John James (R-MI 10) and businessman Perry Johnson for the primary. Both candidates faced challenges to their paperwork.
To decide whether the candidates should make the ballot, state Bureau of Elections staff chose 750 signatures at random to evaluate.
A challenger to James’ petitions claimed many of his sampled signatures were faked, others weren’t properly filled out, and that some of the signers weren’t registered voters.
Elections staff disagreed and found most of those challenged signatures valid. For example, one voter challenged as deceased turned out to be a granddaughter with the same name who lived at the same address.
For Johnson, challengers with a group connected with the James campaign made similar accusations. As with James, Johnson’s campaign turned in enough extra signatures that the tossed ones didn’t bring him below the necessary threshold to make the ballot.
At Thursday’s Board of State Canvassers meeting, a lawyer with the political action committee Mission Michigan also raised alleged whistleblower concerns brought up in a recent Detroit News article. The Johnson campaign faced accusations of printing a “paid for by ...” campaign finance statement on petition sheets after they’d already been signed.
“That’s forgery under the election law. That’s not even a close call,” Mission Michigan attorney Michael Pattwell told the board.
That campaign finance statement is required under candidate guidance from the Secretary of State.
The canvassing board and Johnson’s team both dismissed those claims as arriving after a challenge deadline had already passed.
“It’s an obvious, bad faith smear attempt, and it’s gamesmanship, and it’s really beneath the board,” Johnson lawyer Jon Burns said.
Board of State Canvassers Vice Chair Mary Ellen Gurewitz said the board never got a copy of an alleged statement given to police.
“We don’t have the affidavit. So, what are we supposed to do? Act on a rumor?” Gurewitz told reporters after the meeting.
While Johnson's and James’ campaigns both got approvals from the board to move forward, others fell short.
Elections staff found Republican candidate Pastor Ralph Rebandt to be lacking valid signatures in his random sample. Rebandt and his lawyer unsuccessfully asked the board for more time to try to prove his signatures were valid.
Rebandt told reporters that he wants to dispute the board's decision, though he’d need to speak with his lawyer first.
“I’m still convinced that the 750 [signature] sampling is bad, it’s a bad process. Nobody’s challenged that yet. So our intention is to challenge that in a larger court. So that’s where we’re headed,” he said.
On the Democratic side of the campaign, the Board of State Canvassers agreed with a Bureau of Elections report that candidate Kim Thomas also did not gather enough valid signatures. Thomas vehemently pushed back against that finding during the meeting.
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