Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate Perry Johnson on Wednesday was denied reinstatement on the August primary ballot after the Michigan Court of Appeals unanimously ruled he turned in fraudulent signatures on a petition to qualify for the race, M-Live reports.
Johnson filed a lawsuit after the Michigan Bureau of Elections said five GOP candidates for governor did not have the 15,000 valid signatures required to move forward.
''We conclude that Johnson has not carried his burden of establishing that he is entitled to a writ of mandamus, so we deny his complaint,'' the court wrote in its first ruling.
The court said the Board of State Canvassers did not have a ''clear legal duty'' to check every single signature against the qualified voter file, according to The Washington Post.
''Likewise, because the Board had the discretion to not check each and every signature submitted by the fraudulent-petition circulators, the act Johnson is seeking to compel defendants to perform is not ministerial in nature,'' the ruling stated.
''Because Johnson bears the burden of demonstrating his entitlement to the requested writ … we conclude that his failure to show that the act requested is ministerial and his failure to show a clear legal duty on the part of the Board are fatal to his claim.''
The elections bureau said Johnson submitted 9,393 invalid signatures and 13,800 facially valid ones, both below the required threshold.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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