Perry Johnson, one of the five candidates for governor who were cast off the ballot by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers, just lost his bid in the appeals court to get his name put back on the ballot:
Here’s more via The Hill:
Perry Johnson, a Republican candidate for governor in Michigan, lost a bid on Wednesday to get placed on the primary ballot after a court ruled he used fraudulent signatures on a petition to qualify for the race.
The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Board of State Canvassers, the secretary of state and the director for the Bureau of Elections against Johnson, who filed a lawsuit to force the state to put him on the GOP primary ballot in August after officials rejected his petition, claiming it was rife with fraud.
The ruling will likely have an affect on four other candidates who were also denied a ballot placement for the primary based on similar fraud findings. All the candidates are seeking to challenge incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) in the general election.
Johnson, a businessman who has self-funded much of his campaign, was required to submit a petition containing 15,000 valid signatures in order to qualify for the gubernatorial primary election on Aug. 2.
The candidate submitted 23,193 signatures, but the Michigan Bureau of Elections denied his petition along with four other candidates, saying more than 9,000 signatures were fraudulent, thus dropping him below the qualification threshold.
The three-person court said in the ruling the board did not have to scrutinize in detail every single submitted petition sheet from the circulators.
“Because of the unprecedented number of fraudulent petition sheets consistent of invalid signatures identified during the initial review of petition sheets submitted this election cycle, and the fact that the same fraudulent-petition circulators submitted petition sheets for many different candidates, it was not practical to review these sheets individually during the course of ordinary face review and challenge processing,” the ruling reads.
Johnson, who filed a lawsuit in the appeals court last week, can now take the case to the Michigan Supreme Court if he chooses to appeal.
I’m sure he will appeal this to the Michigan Supreme Court but I have little hope that he will win in this 4-3 Democrat majority court.
The whole thing reeks of corruption and the courts don’t seem to care that so many Republicans are being targeted.