James Craig acknowledges possible fraud in signature gathering for his petition

LANSING — The gubernatorial campaign of former Detroit Police Chief James Craig has acknowledged possible fraud by signature gatherers for his nominating petition, but says Craig's name should still appear on Michigan's August Republican primary ballot.

"Chief Craig in no way condones any act of the handful of circulators who may well have injured his campaign and interfered with the constitutional rights of voters who support him or other candidates," Kansas City, Missouri, attorney Edward Greim, representing the Craig campaign, said in a May 9 letter to the Bureau of Elections, obtained by the Free Press.

The "allegation that a handful of circulators defrauded the Craig campaign and Michigan voters is troubling, (but) the proof will ultimately be found in a careful comparison between petition and qualified voter file (or master card) signatures."

Craig's campaign submitted 21,735 signatures, meaning that if 6,736 were rejected, his petition to get on the primary ballot would come up short. Craig was seen as the early front-runner in the GOP race to take on Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November.

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Craig's campaign faces two challenges — one from a Michigan resident represented by lawyer and former Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer and another from Michigan Strong PAC, a conservative group supporting GOP gubernatorial candidate Tudor Dixon's campaign.

The complaint filed by Brewer alleges that of the signatures Craig filed, nearly 7,000 signatures were forged, over 300 were duplicates, nearly 200 came from nonregistered voters, 30 came from deceased voters and nearly 2,000 were otherwise defective. As a result, Craig failed to file sufficient signatures to appear on the August primary ballot, the complaint asserts.

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Brewer has alleged a group of signature collectors used a "round-robin" technique to fill out each other’s petitions using forged names from a list of legitimate voters.

Greim said: "This alleged fraud seems to have been carried out in a sophisticated manner and is not verifiable without comparing voter signatures and addresses to those contained within the qualified voter file."

The complaint from Michigan Strong PAC also alleges that Craig collected signatures from unregistered voters and engaged in other fraudulent activity.

"Despite the potential efforts of a group of circulators to defraud the campaign, it is our belief that the petition remains valid," Greim said.

"That is because most of the technical challenges fail, and a signature comparison will likely show that the circulators did not write in a sufficient number of false signatures to erase the comfortable cushion of supporters amassed by the campaign."

The challenge from the Michigan Strong PAC alleged that more than 5,000 of those who signed Craig's petition were not registered voters, as required.

Greim said in his response letter that at least 490 of those challenged signatures were in fact registered voters. "We ... expect that a signature-by-signature review will yield additional matches," he said.

Challenges have also been filed to the nominating petitions of Dixon, of Norton Shores, and Oakland County businessman Perry Johnson.

The Bureau of Elections is expected to submit reports on those challenges later this month, after which a ruling is to be made by the Board of State Canvassers, which has two Republican and two Democratic members.

The response from the Craig campaign was due at 5 p.m. Friday but was filed late, Bureau of Elections spokeswoman Tracy Wimmer confirmed.

Twice in his response, Greim referred to Craig as "Chief Clark."

Bureau staff will advise the Board of State Canvassers that the Craig campaign's response to the challenges arrived late, and it will be up to the board whether to accept the response or not, Wimmer said.

Marli Blackman, a spokeswoman for the Craig campaign, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4. Read more on Michigan politics and sign up for our elections newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: James Craig acknowledges possible fraud by signature gatherers