(Source: MIRS.news, Published 06/06/2022) Lawyers with the Perry Johnson campaign filed a suit in federal court Monday asking to remain on the ballot after the Michigan Supreme Court denied a hearing last week.
Johnson’s lawyers are asking the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to step in and allow him to remain on the ballot after 9,393 of his petition signatures were tossed by the Bureau of Elections, nearly 7,000 of which were because they were deemed to be allegedly forged by circulators.
“Johnson will incur irreparable injury because his name will not appear on the August 2022 primary election ballot and he and his supporters will be deprived of a meaningful opportunity to vote for him,” the court filing states.
The lawyers argue the canvassing process is unconstitutional and his due process rights were violated, which are similar arguments to those made before the Michigan Court of Appeals and Michigan Supreme Court.
Johnson’s lawyers also argue that denying his access to the ballot is infringing on his First Amendment rights.
They have asked a federal court to temporarily stop the Secretary of State from printing ballots until the federal court has had a chance to rule.
The Board of State Canvanssers’ deadlocked on a decision to allow him on the ballot after the Bureau of Elections found that only 13,800 of his submitted 23,193 petition signatures were valid. Candidates need 15,000 to qualify to appear on the ballot.
James Craig, Michael Markey and Donna Brandenburg were also denied a place on the ballot.
Michael Brown, who had already dropped out, was also subject to the fraud, as were several judicial candidates, after the state found that 36 petition circulators forged about 68,000 signatures across 10 candidates' petitions running for various positions.
The issue of possible forgery from petition circulators was brought up as a challenge during a Board of Canvassers meeting in April by attorneys Steven Liedel and Mark Brewer. Liedel was the attorney who issued the challenge against Johnson’s signatures.
