A ring of paid, out-of-state, petition circulators has helped throw Michigan’s 2022 primary nominating process into disarray.
Thousands of defective signatures on nominating petitions collected by a group of circulators hired by several campaigns may result in the disqualification of two Republican candidates for governor.
An error involving a petition heading may remove another GOP candidate for governor from the 10-candidate field.
It is legal and common practice for candidates and ballot proposal advocates to hire professional circulators to help their campaigns get the requisite number of valid signatures to appear on the ballot.
The tactics of the alleged scammers, slipshod petition crafting, and sloppy signature gathering on the part of several candidates of both parties around the state could lead to more possible disqualifications.
James Craig, a former Detroit police chief and current front-runner for the GOP nomination for governor, employed paid circulators to assist his campaign.
As a result of his contractors’ actions, Craig may have to leave the race.
Craig filed nominating petitions containing 21,000 signatures by the April 19 deadline.
Under normal circumstances that would have been a comfortable surplus as only 15,000 valid signatures are required to secure a place on the Aug. 2 primary ballot.
Challengers from the Michigan Democratic Party, along with a battery of law firms, exercising their right to examine any candidate’s petitions, claim to have discovered 6,933 potentially defective signatures on Craig’s.
Among other irregularities, the challengers discovered peculiar patterns of signatures which they allege were forged by a group of eight circulators passing around one another’s petitions between them and signing other people’s names.
If the challenges are upheld, Craig would not have the required number of valid signatures.
The 23,000 signatures submitted on petitions by another Republican candidate for governor, businessman Perry Johnson, allegedly contain enough questionable signatures to disqualify him as well, according to the challengers.
Democrat challengers also contend that an error in the heading of every one of the petition sheets filed by GOP candidate for governor, Tudor Dixon, should disqualify her.
Dixon filed 29,735 signatures, all of which the Democrats claim to be invalid because the heading says the four-year term of the next governor expires on Dec. 31, 2026, instead of high noon on Jan. 1, 2027.
Both Craig, Johnson, and Dixon have said in public statements that the problems are insufficient to warrant being denied a place on the ballot.
The final determinations will be made by the State Board of Canvassers in a meeting scheduled for May 26.
A poll conducted in late March by the Trafalgar Group found Craig leading the nine other Republicans vying for the right to take on incumbent Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer in November.
Craig polled 34 percent, Johnson 16 percent, Garret Soldano 14.7 percent, Ryan Kelley 6.8 percent, and Tudor Dixon 2.6 percent, with 12.4 percent undecided and the balance divided among the bottom five candidates.
