DETROIT (AP) — A Republican candidate for Michigan governor lost a bid to get on the Aug. 2 primary ballot Wednesday in the first key court decision since election officials found campaign petitions rife with fraudulent signatures.
The ruling affects Perry Johnson, a wealthy businessman considered to be a leading candidate for the Republican nomination. But the decision could also apply to three other candidates, including former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, who also have barred from the ballot.
Separate legal challenges were pending, just a few days before the ballot must be completed.
There appears to be no dispute that fraudulent signatures were turned in by paid circulators, though there’s no evidence that the candidates were aware of the scam. In a court filing, attorneys representing the Board of State Canvassers called it an “unprecedented situation.”
The candidates were declared ineligible last week, the result of a tie vote by the board. State election staff said Johnson, Craig, Michael Markey and Donna Brandenburg didn’t meet the 15,000-signature threshold because of fraudulent signatures.
In Johnson's case, about 7,000 were put in the scam column. Election staff found dead voters on his petitions, misspelled names and some signatures with first names but only a last initial.
Johnson asked the appeals court to overrule the canvassers and put him on the ballot. He said he would meet the signature threshold if the state election bureau would examine each petition line by line. Only 20% of the 7,000 signatures were compared to signatures in the state voter file.
“The board ... had a clear legal duty to investigate, but it did not have a clear legal duty to conduct a comparison of each fraudulent signature against the qualified voter file,” the appeals court said in a 3-0 opinion.
Five other Republican candidates landed a ballot spot, including Tudor Dixon, a former conservative TV news host who has the backing of Betsy DeVos, who was head of the U.S. Education Department during the Trump administration.
The winner will face Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the fall.
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