John James

LANSING, MI – Ahead of the August primary election for governor, two Republican candidates considered frontrunners are facing opposing challenges to their petition signatures.

U.S. Rep. John James, R-Shelby Township, and businessman Perry Johnson have each had their signatures challenged in letters dated May 7.

Both complaints allege fraudulent petition signatures and call for investigations into potential signature fraud. An Oakland County resident complained about James and a super PAC supporting James is behind the Johnson complaint.

A minimum of 15,000 signatures is necessary to qualify for the Aug. 4 primary ballot. Candidates must also submit signatures of at least 100 registered voters in at least half of the congressional districts in Michigan.

The challenges don’t automatically mean fraud has been committed or signatures will be invalidated. Both candidates turned in more than the 15,000 signatures required.

The state’s election officials and Board of State Canvassers will ultimately determine if candidates have enough valid signatures to get on the ballot, starting with the state’s Bureau of Elections reviewing a random sample of each candidate’s submissions.

Jackson Gross, campaign manager for John James, called the challenge against his campaign unserious, and said it reflects Johnson’s “own insecurities.”

“Rather than answer for his own track record, Perry is once again trying to manufacture distractions,” Gross said. “He was thrown off the 2022 gubernatorial ballot because of his campaign’s fraud, and now, based on multiple challenges to his current petitions, it looks like the self-proclaimed quality guru is again struggling to make the ballot.”

Johnson issued a statement that his campaign submitted over 29,000 signatures and when the “formal process is complete, we are extremely confident we will be on the ballot in August.”

“The weak challenge by the desperate John James campaign is nonsense,“ Johnson said. ”Their campaign is obviously deflecting because they have many serious issues with his own staff’s direct involvement with petition problems and dropping poll numbers.

“Meanwhile, James continues to spend more time and energy on my petitions and internal process items than actually showing up to debates and presenting voters anything resembling an actual plan or vision for Michigan,” Johnson said.

Both campaigns have previously spoken about extra steps taken to review and ensure signature quality.

The challenge against Johnson’s campaign comes from the James-supporting super PAC Mission Michigan.

An attorney for the super PAC wrote in a May 7 letter that an “initial analysis of Johnson’s petitions has uncovered patterns that indicate the presence of likely forgery and other fraudulent signature gathering tactics.”

That includes “hundreds of duplicate signatures” and the use of several petition circulators previously flagged for fraud.

The complaint alleges that some sheets and entries contain nearly identical handwriting, while others have blank lines at random points, “which suggests the possibility of a round-tabling strategy in which sheets were passed around a group of signers.”

If the signatures flagged as invalid aren’t included, Mission Michigan’s attorney argued that Johnson would fall to approximately 14,550 signatures, below the state’s requirement.

The letter also referenced a “repeat of conduct” from the 2022 gubernatorial election that necessitates extra scrutiny, referring to Johnson’s unsuccessful effort to run for governor four years ago.

He sought the GOP nomination to run against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is now term-limited, but was one of five Republicans disqualified from the governor’s race for not having enough valid signatures after a fraud scandal.

Paid petition circulators for the signature collection firms his campaign hired were accused of faking the signatures of nearly 7,000 voters. Several individuals were found guilty in court earlier this year.

Johnson sued in the Michigan Court of Appeals, but was ultimately unsuccessful.

Mission Michigan’s challenge asks the state Board of Canvassers to investigate the extent of the alleged fraud prior to the Bureau of Elections completing its reports.

The letter also alleges that Johnson’s previous disqualification and “the failures listed above” suggest that he’s committing fraud knowingly, which the super PAC argues is basis to disqualify him from the ballot.

James’ campaign has also been flagged for potential signature fraud by Troy resident Glenn Clark, who wrote in his Thursday, May 7 letter to the Board of State Canvassers that there are “extensive irregularities,” including signatures from fraudulent circulators and “dead people.”

The complaint also included an allegation of roundtable fraud, and said circulator fraud is likely because of a similar style of what were referred to as “crazy 5’s” found throughout the petition sample.

“Throughout the sample and full submission, an extremely distinct number ‘5’ can be seen in 273 of the sample sheets (36%),” the complaint reads. “This unique mark suggests that the same individual was falsifying the required circulator affidavit for these petition sheets.”

The complaint does not provide a total number of potentially fraudulent signatures, but it alleges that James’ campaign political director Tyler Foti participated in circulator fraud.

Candidates for governor were required to submit signatures by April 21 to appear on the August primary ballot.

Five Republican candidates – James; Johnson; state Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt, R-Porter Township; former state Attorney General Mike Cox; and pastor Ralph Rebandt – turned in signatures.

So did three Democratic candidates: Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson and former federal auditor Kim Thomas.

Independent candidate Mike Duggan, formerly elected mayor of Detroit as a Democrat, will have a later signature filing deadline to get on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.