LANSING, Mich. (WXYZ) — The Michigan Bureau of Elections said five Republican candidates for Governor, Mike Markey, Michael Brown, Donna Brandenburg, James Craig, and Perry Johnson, did not have the 15,000 valid signatures required to move forward.
Michael Brown dropped out of the race in response, but the other four took the fight to the Court of Claims or the Court of Appeals.
The deadline for all sides to get arguments before the courts was May 31.
“When you are going to accuse someone of fraud you have to be right,” said Markey.
Michael Markey, a businessman from western Michigan, says there may have been some problems, but he believes he has enough valid signatures to remain on the ballot at the primary election in August.
“We didn’t have any challenges. No one challenged our signatures. The state said these others are so bad, let’s target him too,” said Markey.
He claims he got his signatures in early and then competitors in a rush may have had issues using the same circulators he used.
“We don’t have that fraud. I don’t know what these circulators did after they got off our campaign. But we were done getting signatures over a month before the deadline. We had no rush,” said Markey.
For all of the candidates, the Board of Elections shared images of suspicious signatures. You can take a look at its report here.
