The Michigan Bureau of Elections recommended on Monday that five of the day Republicans running for governor should be disqualified after an investigation allegedly found evidence of signature fraud on documentation needed to qualify for the ballot:
The Monday announcement recommending five Republican candidates be disqualified from running for governor rocked the state amid a contentious political year. https://t.co/JfkhtuJmaN
— FOX 2 Detroit (@FOX2News) May 24, 2022
The candidates who may not make the ballot include “the polling & spending leaders, because too many of their signatures came from a fraudulent signature-gathering firm”:
5 of 10 Michigan Republican candidates for Governor may not make the ballot, including the polling & spending leaders, because too many of their signatures came from a fraudulent signature gathering firm
https://t.co/ojX2X2vXzz— Matt Grossmann (@MattGrossmann) May 24, 2022
Welp:
“A MASSIVE signature forgery scandal just broke in Michigan. Investigators think ‘at least’ 68,000 signatures across 10 candidates’ petitions are invalid. Signature gatherers worked for multiple campaigns. 5 GOP governor hopefuls may be disqualified, including 2 leading candidates.”
A MASSIVE signature forgery scandal just broke in Michigan. Investigators think "at least" 68,000 signatures across 10 candidates' petitions are invalid. Signature gatherers worked for multiple campaigns. 5 GOP governor hopefuls may be disqualified, including 2 leading candidates https://t.co/GVk0iKuLsE
— Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) May 24, 2022
Here are the findings from the Michigan Burea of Elections:
From the Michigan Bureau of Elections report on alleged signature forgery ring accused of submitting fake signatures for James Craig, Perry Johnson and other Michigan gubernatorial candidates: pic.twitter.com/PDCeajjsAD
— Jonathan Oosting (@jonathanoosting) May 24, 2022
“Given the large number of candidates seeking to qualify for the ballot, Bureau staff began to
review nominating petitions at the end of March, after several gubernatorial candidates had
submitted nominating petitions. During this review, staff noticed a large number of petition
sheets, submitted by certain circulators, appeared fraudulent and consisted entirely of invalid
signatures. These petition sheets tended to display at least one of the following patterns:
*An unusually large number of petition sheets where every signature line was completed,
or where every line was completed but one or two lines were crossed out;3
*Many sheets showing signs of apparent attempts at “intentional” signature invalidity,
including sheets where an entry listed a county in the “city or township” field, or a birth
date rather than the date of signing in the “date” field;4
*An unusually large number of petition sheets that showed no evidence of normal wear
that accompanies circulation, including folding, scuffing, minor water damage from rain,
or any of the other characteristics that come from sheets being kept on clipboards and
handled by multiple people in public or outdoor conditions.
*Sheets that appeared to be “round-tabled’ a practice in which a group of individuals
passes around sheets with each individual signing one line on each sheet with
handwriting different from the circulator’s handwriting, in an attempt to make
handwriting and signatures appear authentic and received from actual voters.
*Sheets on which blank and completed lines were randomly interspersed, indicating that a
sheet had been submitted “mid-round-table.” In such cases, a sheet was submitted even
though the round-tabling process had not been completed.
*Sheets where all ten lines had signatures and partial addresses or dates, but only a random
subset were fully completed;
*Sheets on which every instance of the handwriting of certain letters across different
signatory lines and sheets, including in the signatures themselves, was near-identical;5
*Sets of sheets where the two or three distinct handwriting styles appeared on multiple
sheets.6″
One candidate, MSP Capt. Michael Brown, has already dropped out:
After the bombshell late yesterday from the Bureau of Elections that five of 10 GOP gubernatorial candidates shouldn’t make the ballot due to alleged signature fraud, MSP Capt. Michael Brown announces he’s dropping out. We’ll have more today. pic.twitter.com/MhW5GtxKuF
— Michigan Advance (@MichiganAdvance) May 24, 2022
And he’s denied any involvement with the scheme:
Brown said, "It appears that after my campaign's signature gathering was complete, individuals independently contracted for a portion of our signature gathering and validation jumped onto other campaigns and went on a money grab." (1/2)
— AM 1590/FM 95.5 WTVB (@wtvbradio) May 24, 2022
"They were involved in allegedly fraudulent signature gathering activities with these campaigns causing the Michigan Bureau of Elections to declare all of the signatures connected to those individuals as invalid. I cannot and will not be associated with this activity." (2/2)
— AM 1590/FM 95.5 WTVB (@wtvbradio) May 24, 2022
We’ll keep you posted on this story as well and note that this looks like the signature-gathering firms who are at fault, not the candidates:
While we do not know all the facts yet here, most often in the past this is fraud perpetrated on the candidates by the firms they hire for signature gathering, not by the candidates themselves https://t.co/YPGaicqIrE
— Michael McDonald (@ElectProject) May 24, 2022
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