Forgeries, misspellings and dead voters: Democrats challenge GOP filings in Michigan governor's race
Three Republican candidates for Michigan governor could be disqualified from the ballot due to alleged fraud and forgery.
The state Democratic Party filed 250 pages of complaints Tuesday challenging the nomination petitions for James Craig, Tudor Dixon and Perry Johnson alleging that dead people signed the petitions, along with other alleged irregularities, reported MLive.
“The extensive evidence of fraud and forgery found throughout the nominating petitions submitted by James Craig, Tudor Dixon, and Perry Johnson indicate not only that their irresponsible campaigns are grossly negligent, but that they are not capable of being accountable leaders,” said state Democratic Party chair Lavora Barnes.
The Board of Canvassers has until May 31 to review the petitions, which the Democratic challenges say are littered with errors.
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Craig's signatures have the most problems, according the challenge -- which disputes more than 9,000 of the 21,000 signatures he submitted, including a signature dated from 1983, badly misspelled county names and nearly 7,000 allegedly forged signatures.
Those petitions were also challenged by apolitical action committee that supports Craig's GOP rival Dixon.
Democrats say all 29,735 signatures submitted by Dixon should be disqualified because the heading above all of them incorrectly states the governor term expires in 2026, not Jan. 1, 2027.
Johnson's petitions also had “extensive irregularities,” according to the challenge, including some names allegedly signed by people who are dead.
Craig and Johnson were leading the polls last month, while Dixon was the only Michigan gubernatorial candidate who Donald Trump complimented at a rally earlier this month in the state.