{"id":1493470,"date":"2022-05-26T15:30:04","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T19:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1493470"},"modified":"2022-05-26T15:30:12","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T19:30:12","slug":"michigan-election-chaos-gop-frontrunner-4-others-are-barred-from-ballot-after-board-split","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/michigan-election-chaos-gop-frontrunner-4-others-are-barred-from-ballot-after-board-split\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan Election Chaos: GOP Frontrunner, 4 Others Are Barred From Ballot After Board Split"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmichigan-election-chaos-gop-frontrunner-4-others-are-barred-from-ballot-after-board-split%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1493470&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Michigan Board of State Canvassers came to split decisions Thursday, meaning that five Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidates, including former Detroit police chief and GOP favorite James Craig, are ineligible to appear on the ballot.<\/p>\n<p>The board, made up of two Republicans and two Democrats, made the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bridgemi.com\/michigan-government\/board-denies-craig-johnson-others-spots-michigan-ballot-lawsuits-next\">decisions<\/a> after the Michigan Bureau of Elections <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/michigan-moves-to-toss-gop-candidates-james-craig-perry-johnson-from-race-to-oust-whitmer\">recommended<\/a> barring five candidates from the ballot Monday night. After finding that the petition circulators assigned by the candidates submitted fraudulent signatures, the Bureau of Elections said the gubernatorial hopefuls fell short of the needed 15,000 signatures to appear on the ballot for the primary election in August.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s nothing to suggest there are valid signatures,\u201d Michigan Elections Director Jonathan Brater <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonathanoosting\/status\/1529822991730692096\">told<\/a> the board in a <a href=\"https:\/\/cloud.castus.tv\/vod\/misenate\/video\/61f1d10e765b120008f2f027?page=HOME&#038;type=live\">hearing<\/a> Thursday morning. \u201cIt\u2019s not a place that anybody wants to be. It\u2019s a terrible thing for our state, and it\u2019s an attack on our election system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Brater: \u201cThere\u2019s nothing to suggest there are valid signatures\u201d from the fraudulent circulators. \u201cIt\u2019s not a place that anybody wants to be. It\u2019s a terrible thing for our state, and it\u2019s an attack on our election system.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KVG4Hj5B2S\">https:\/\/t.co\/KVG4Hj5B2S<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jonathan Oosting (@jonathanoosting) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonathanoosting\/status\/1529822991730692096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 26, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Craig responded to the decision barring him from ballot and promised to take the issue to court. \u201cWe will be filing an immediate appeal in the courts,\u201d Craig <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonathanoosting\/status\/1529898662024949791\">said<\/a> in a statement. \u201cWe are confident that when the law is justly applied, our campaign will be on the ballot this August.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Along with Craig, businessman Perry Johnson, capital management CEO Donna Brandenburg, financial adviser Michael Markey, and Michigan State Police Captain Michael Brown will be barred from appearing on the ballot.<\/p>\n<p>Brater testified that his team checked 7,000 out of 68,000 signatures that they suspected of being fraudulent, and found that none of them were legitimate, Bridge News reporter Jonathan Oosting tweeted. Based on this finding, Brater said his staff is \u201cconfident in saying these signatures should not be counted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Attorney George Lewis, who represents Craig, fought back, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonathanoosting\/status\/1529834187619872768\">claiming<\/a> the Bureau of Elections violated state law by not checking every single signature they suspected of being fraudulent. Lewis also said he has affidavits from 15 voters, who signed on suspected fraudulent petition sheets, claiming they legitimately signed their name.<\/p>\n<p>After Craig\u2019s attorney testified, Republican board member Tony Daunt <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonathanoosting\/status\/1529834926949867520\">said<\/a> he believes the signatures are \u201cprobably fraudulent,\u201d but asked if it would be possible to count every signature by June 3. \u201cMy gut tells me these are probably fraudulent \u2026 but I cannot base these important decisions on assumptions,\u201d Daunt said.<\/p>\n<p>Capital management CEO Donna Brandenburg, another GOP gubernatorial candidate, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonathanoosting\/status\/1529829144615219200\">called<\/a> the Bureau of Elections\u2019 process \u201can arbitrary goat rodeo,\u201d and her attorney argued that candidates did not get any notice of the alleged fraudulent signatures when the Bureau of Elections became aware of them in March. This coincides with GOP candidate Michael Brown\u2019s team <a href=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/news\/politics\/2022\/05\/23\/james-craig-perry-johnson-shouldnt-make-ballot-michigan-gubernatorial-primary-state-bureau-elections\/9895349002\/\">claiming<\/a> it did not receive any notice of fraudulent signatures until after 8 p.m. ET on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a shame,\u201d Brandenburg said. \u201cIt\u2019s an assault against the American people on every level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The candidates are expected to take the case to court, which could result in a postponed primary election depending on the court\u2019s decision. Republican Board of State Canvassers Chairman Norm Shinkle <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jonathanoosting\/status\/1529869890223472640\">said<\/a> the case could make its way up to the Michigan Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<p>For now, the decision throws the Michigan GOP gubernatorial race into chaos as Craig dominated in recent polling, showing he was the clear favorite to challenge Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November.<\/p>\n<p>The remaining five candidates in the Republican race who will appear on the ballot for the August primary are radio host Tudor Dixon, chiropractor Garrett Soldano, Pastor Ralph Rebandt, businessman Kevin Rinke, and real estate broker Ryan Kelley.<\/p>\n<p><em>This story has been updated with additional information.<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Michigan Board of State Canvassers came to split decisions Thursday, meaning that five Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidates, including former Detroit police chief and GOP favorite James Craig, are ineligible to appear on the ballot. The board, made up of two Republicans and two Democrats, made the decisions after the Michigan Bureau of Elections recommended &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":324,"featured_media":1493504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1493470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/324"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1493470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1493470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1493504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1493470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1493470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1493470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}