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DETROIT (CN) — A Republican gubernatorial candidate removed from the Michigan ballot last week sued state officials Monday in federal court, claiming he was ousted from the primary “on nothing more than whims of fraud.”
Perry Johnson, a businessman who vowed to spend his own money to win over conservative voters in the state, collected over 23,000 signatures prior to the April 19 deadline, a total well in excess of the 15,000 required to be placed on this year’s August primary ballot.
At the end of May, however, Johnson was informed by the Michigan Bureau of Elections that over 9,000 of his signatures were invalid and, as a result, he would not be eligible for placement on the ballot. Over 6,000 of the signatures were invalidated because they were forged, according to the bureau.
Johnson appealed to the state supreme court but found out Friday he would not be listed as a candidate for the Republican nomination, which prompted Monday’s federal lawsuit filed in Detroit.
In the complaint, Johnson calls himself “unequivocally … one of the front-runners” in the race, and says the bureau failed to provide an explanation for why the 2,410 non-forged signatures were invalidated.
He accused the bureau of making unlawful changes to its canvassing process “through secretive processes, deceptive practices, and on nothing more than whims of fraud.”
“Defendants attempted to justify the changes to the BOE procedures based on several novel, inconsistent, trivial, and wholly arbitrary data points,” the lawsuit states. “They then used those data points as pretext to categorize petition circulators as fraudulent and proceeded to invalidate every signature those circulators collected by merely spot checking fewer than 20% of those signatures.” (Emphasis in original)
Johnson says the new procedures make it “impossible” for him to have his name on the primary ballot, and claims the review process used by the state agency violated his due process rights.
According to the complaint, the bureau bypassed its typical two-stage verification process when it came across more than 68,000 supposedly invalid signatures spread across more than 10 of the Republican candidates’ nominating petitions.
“In an unprecedented deviation from the bureau’s two stage standard approach to processing nominating petitions,” Johnson’s complaint says, “the bureau modified its standard approach by setting aside all the nominating petitions signed by the alleged fraudulent petition circulators.”
The bureau then checked spot-checked just 7,000 of the petitions, according to Johnson, but tossed out all 68,000 of the signatures.
At his hearing before the bureau, officials told Johnson “it was ‘impractical’ to compare every signature … as required by law,” which left him wondering how they could say for certain if any of his signatures were actually invalid.
“To date,” the lawsuit states, “there is no indication that the secretary contacted any individuals who circulated these [fraudulent] petitions, no indication that the secretary contacted any individuals whose information appears on the face of the petitions, or any of the other hallmarks of a traditional government fraud investigation. And, there have been no criminal or civil charges yet brought against any of the individuals who circulated the allegedly fraudulent petitions.”
Johnson seeks a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction to keep the bureau from enforcing its 15,000-signature threshold, as well as an order to stop the printing of the August primary ballots. He is represented by attorney Eric Esshaki in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
The Michigan Board of State Canvassers is named as a defendant in the suit alongside Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Jonathan Brater, director of the Bureau of Elections,
The Secretary of State’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Former Detroit Chief of Police James Craig was also booted from the ballot after over 11,000 of his signatures were invalidated by the bureau.
Craig has yet to take legal action but said on Sunday the election is “absolutely” being stolen from him.
Following the removal of Johnson and Craig, five candidates remain in the Republican gubernatorial primary: Tudor Dixon, Kevin Rinke, Garrett Soldano, Ralph Rebandt and Ryan Kelley.
The winner of August’s primary will face incumbent Democrat Gretchen Whitmer in the November general election.
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