According to this story, one candidate for city office in Bayonne, New Jersey, has accused his rival of deliberately making a copy of his already-submitted ballot access petition, and then canvassing the same voters who had signed, urging them to sign for another candidate for the same office. If voters sign for two candidates for the same office, and there is only one seat to be filled, then both signatures are invalid.
As the news spread, yet another candidate, for another office, who had already submitted his petition, retrieved it. He said he would turn it in again, just before the deadline, to make sure that his opponent doesn’t attempt the same tactic.
Laws that make it illegal for voters to sign for two opposing candidates cause this type of mischief. If the U.S. Supreme Court rules in Doe v Reed that ballot access petitions are not public, that would also alleviate this problem to a certain extent.
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Michigan’s election code has a slight refinement which might help — basically, “first signed, first served”:
/===========================================
168.547a Nominating petitions; signatures
by voters, number, counting.
Sec. 547a.
If a qualified and registered voter signs
nominating petitions for a greater number
of candidates for public office than the
number of persons to be elected thereto,
his signatures, if they bear the same date,
shall not be counted upon any petition,
and if they bear different dates shall be
counted in the order of their priority of
date for only so many candidates as there
are persons to be elected.
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