Dead People Allegedly Among MMOP Petition Signers

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 07/10/2026) Opponents of the campaign finance ballot initiative backed by Michiganders for Money Out of Politics (MMOP) claim its petitions include forged signatures, duplicate signatures and even the names of people who were already dead when they supposedly signed.

Protect MI Free Speech filed the challenge ahead of Friday’s deadline, arguing enough signatures should be invalidated to keep the proposal from being certified by the Board of State Canvassers and sent to the Legislature.

In a review of a 1,000-signature sample, Protect MI Free Speech alleged it found 10 signatures from people who were dead when they supposedly signed the petition, more than 148 duplicate signatures—including some individuals who allegedly signed as many as eight times—and petition circulators who allegedly signed their own petitions multiple times. The challenge also alleges signatures from unregistered voters and numerous address and jurisdiction errors.

“Michigan residents already lived through a disastrous petition process in the last gubernatorial election year, when the rules were ignored and the process was corrupted by bad actors. We strongly encourage the canvassers to fully investigate the sample and the full submission,” said Protect MI Free Speech spokesperson John Sellek.

MMOP said they have submitted more than 560,000 signatures, and they need 356,958 to pass through the petition process. Something that the group said they would defend vigorously ahead of the Board of State Canvassers July 24 meeting.

MMOP officials said their group intends to vigorously defend its signatures in the eyes of the Board of State Canvassers before the Bureau of Elections issues their final recommendation to the Board of State Canvassers, which is expected sometime the week before the meeting.

The Protect MI Free Speech also claims many signature errors, signatures from people not registered to vote in Michigan or registered to vote at all, and many address and jurisdictional errors from the petition.

“Before the free speech rights of everyday Michigan families are wiped out by this Trojan horse, dark money-funded initiative that will put out-of-state billionaires in control of our state politics, the Board of Canvassers must conduct a thorough investigation into the apparent submission of invalid signatures, including signatures from dead people,” Sellek said.