Michigan GOP Candidates Face Challenges After Submitting Their Ballot Petitions with Major Fraud and Forgery

Multiple Challenges Show “Craig’s nearly 10,000 challenged signatures would give him far fewer than the minimum 15,000 valid voter signatures needed to make the ballot.”  

Multiple challenges are being filed against the nominating petitions submitted by Republican gubernatorial candidates James Craig, Tudor Dixon, and Perry Johnson after a review found extensive evidence of fraudulent and forged signatures.

The Associated Press described one of the schemes used as “round-robining” forgery, saying it was “a small group of people sign[ing] names and addresses.”

Crain’s Detroit reported that James Craig is facing “allegations that his petitions contain thousands of forgeries, hundreds of duplicate signatures and unregistered voters and some 30 deceased voters,” and multiple groups “contend Craig’s nearly 10,000 challenged signatures would give him far fewer than the minimum 15,000 valid voter signatures needed to make the ballot.” 

In yet another instance of Republican infighting, Crain’s reported that a pro-Dixon GOP consultant described Craig’s petitions as “rife with obvious signs of fraud, including numerous pages with signatures that appear to be from the same hand.”

Making these ballot petitions even more of an issue in the GOP primary, it shows that Craig — who is running on his law enforcement background — likely violated the law while self-proclaimed “quality guru” Johnson’s ballot petitions were also a total mess.

“James Craig, Tudor Dixon, and Perry Johnson have been caught trying to cheat their way through the crowded, nasty GOP primary,” said DGA Deputy Communications Director Sam Newton. “The Republican candidates have been too busy with ballot petition scheme to come up with real solutions to improve Michiganders’ lives — and there’s no doubt the entire Republican primary can only get more chaotic from here.” 

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