Michigan elections FAQ: Are candidate disqualifications the new norm?

• Candidate disqualifications are up in recent years, with the most in recent memory occurring during the 2022 election cycle
• At that time, a signature fraud scandal kept 48 candidates, including several in the Republican gubernatorial race, off the ballot 
• While an increased number of disqualifications in the last four years can feel like this is a new normal, it’s definitely not a traditional one

LANSING — As the August primary and November general elections approach, Bridge Michigan is inviting readers to ask questions that we promptly answer though the Elections FAQ feature of our Voter Guide. 

You can ask a question here.

Our latest reader question: Eight candidates curtailed from MI ballots for 2024 primary — is that a norm for past primary elections?

There are several reasons a candidate could be disqualified from the ballot. 

These issues typically range from outright not gathering enough signatures to make the ballot — this threshold is fluid depending on the position sought — or having the wrong formatting on those sheets.

Yet, given state and local election officials have kept a total of 75 candidates off the ballot in the last four years, it can certainly feel like this is becoming a new normal. 

It’s not, however, a traditional normal.

Looking back, just eight candidates were kept from the ballot in 2016. That number jumped to 18 candidates in 2018 then fell to nine in 2020.

It’s only recently that disqualifications have skyrocketed, 48 candidates overall kept from the ballot in 2022. 

That’s the year a massive and unprecedented forgery scheme rocked a number of candidate campaigns, including Republican gubernatorial hopefuls like former Detroit Police Chief James Craig and businessman Perry Johnson, keeping them from the ballot.

At that time, Michigan Bureau of Elections staff determined that certain circulators likely forged voters’ signatures — rather than gather the signatures naturally — after finding thousands of signatures from dead people, people no longer living in Michigan or signatures that matched the handwriting of other  signatures on the same sheet.

The matter is now headed to trial after Attorney General Dana Nessel charged three people in the matter in 2023. She alleges the trio ran signature gathering businesses that knowingly took money from campaigns for collection work, only to knowingly deliver thousands of forged signatures instead. 

It’s believed the group had a financial incentive to deliver fraudulent signatures, with the cost of signatures skyrocketing from $5 to $7 a signature in recent years to upward of $11.

It’s no surprise, then, that Michigan is still experiencing the fallout of that scandal two years later, booting 27 candidates overall from the ballot in 2024 — including eight Congressional candidates. 

Not all, however, were related to signature fraud.

While state elections staff noted they again identified hundreds of apparently fraudulent signatures on candidate nominating petitions, reports indicating there was a “lower overall number of petition sheets showing clear indications of fraud, and signatures of dubious authenticity … as compared to 2022.”

Efforts to further tackle signature fraud are also under consideration, Board of State Canvassers Chair Mary Ellen Gurewitz told reporters in May.

As part of that push, Gurewitz, a Democrat, has advocated for canvassers personally and closely examining “any instance of fraud, or suspected fraud, that isn’t covered by people who are examining the petitions.”

But “the board simply doesn’t have the kind of investigative capacity that the attorney general has,” Gurewitz said, adding that any further efforts to truly crack down on signature fraud — other than by disqualifying candidates — is out of their hands.