Here is a link to the article in today’s Detroit News, although it is behind a paywall. But, the following is a synopsis of the article.
It is asserted that, over the past five to seven years, there has been an uptick in petition fraud in Michigan. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is calling for a “review and modernization of ballot access laws” in Michigan. She says the same petitioning “bad actors” are hired repeatedly in Michigan. She wants harsher penalties for petition fraud. Benson questions whether paper petition signatures are the best way to qualify for the ballot. Many local candidates in Michigan pay a fee to get on the ballot, and maybe that should be the policy for higher level races. She has talked with the Chair of the Michigan Senate Elections Committee about a “wholesale rewrite” of Michigan’s ballot access laws. Could AI help the signature validation process, or could it be used fraudulently? A signature forgery scandal knocked five Republican Governer candidates off the primary ballot in 2022. Eight US House candidates and several judicial candidates were struck from the 2024 primary ballot due to insufficient valid signatures. One GOP US House candidate who was knocked off the ballot says the rules are applied unevenly.
My commentary: The article was short on a lot of specifics (not the fault of its author), but, as I have written on this blog before, the problem in Michigan is that signature requirements are too damn high. This forgery problem is, in my opinion, a self-inflicted wound by the State of Michigan that would largely end if there were lower, more reasonable petition requirements. To require a major party candidate for statewide office to collect 15,000 valid signatures to get on a primary ballot is absurd. It’s only 12,000 signatures for an Independent candidate, but it used to be 30,000 signatures, until the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the number reduced in its Graveline v. Benson decision. No petitioning requirement for candidates or political parties should ever be more than 0.1% of the number of registered voters eligible to vote for that office. That is a sufficient barrier to so-called “ballot crowding.” If Michigan instituted that law, or reasonable fees that the non-wealthy could pay to get on the ballot, it would largely do away with candidate and political party signature fraud in that state.
