MI Court Rejects Johnson's Appeal, Republican Stays Off Ballot: Report

MICHIGAN — The Michigan Court of Appeals rejected an appeal from Oakland County businessman Perry Johnson to be placed on the ballot for governor in the Republican primary after state election officials said he was ineligible, according to multiple news reports.

The court said Johnson's appeal was filed "somewhat inelegantly."

"The board ... had a clear legal duty to investigate, but it did not have a clear legal duty to conduct a comparison of each fraudulent signature against the qualified voter file," the appeals court said in a 3-0 opinion.

Johnson, along with former Detroit Police Chief James Craig and three other Republicans were deemed ineligible for August's Primaries elections after the Michigan Bureau of Elections said they found massive fraud on their petition forms, including paid, forged and dead people's signatures.

Craig also filed a lawsuit Friday, arguing election officials failed to properly check the signatures they challenged on the candidates petition forms.

The Republican Primary for the governor's race will be held on Aug. 2. The winner will face Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November.