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Craig's campaign says despite some false signatures, enough were legal to get him on gubernatorial ballot

By Tim Skubick
Published  May 12, 2022 6:30pm EDT
2022 Midterm Elections
FOX 2 Detroit

Craig campaign responds to false signature allegations

James Craig's campaign says that while there were some fake signatures on his petition to run for governor, enough were real.

LANSING, Mich. (FOX 2) - Days after allegations arose that James Craig submitted false signatures to get on the Michigan gubernatorial ballot, his team filed a rebuttal. 

Read more election coverage here.

The former Detroit police chief turned in 21,736 petition signatures. He needed 15,000 to get on the ballot.

Read: Opponents allege Craig turned in dead voter signatures

However, others filed a 200-page document alleging fraud with 7,000 of those signatures.

"We had signatures from dead voters on here. The only way a dead voter's signature gets on a petition is through forgery," said Scott Brewer, the former chair of the Michigan Democratic Party.

Craig's lawyer responded in a statement, saying,"Despite the potential effort of groups of circulator to defraud the campaign, it is our belief that the petition remains valid. The circulators did not write in a sufficient number of false signatures to erase the comfortable cushion" of extra names.

The attorney reports that 490 of the signatures that Brewer challenged out of the almost 7,000 were legal signatures and therefore Craig should be on the ballot.

Still, Brewer claims he has enough proof to knock two GOP candidates off the ballot

"I filed 200 pages of forgeries with the state two weeks ago. That is more than enough to knock off Craig and Johnson," he said.

Brewer is referring to another GOP candidate for governor, Perry Johnson. Another lawyer is challenging the signatures submitted by the Johnson campaign alleging he did not file enough legal names either.

Johnson's attorney said the allegation "fails to point to a single fraudulent signature filed by the six circulators...speculation is not enough to invalidate signatures."

Campaign strategist John Yob dismisses all this as a "partisan and cynical attempt" to stop Johnson's bid.

The state board of canvassers will meet on May 26 to determine if the charges of fraud are true, and the two republicans and two democrats will thus decide the political fate of Craig and Johnson – do they go on the ballot or not?