ICYMI: Michigan Dems and DSCC “Want Probe of Rogers Petitions,” Citing “Additional Indications of Apparent Fraud” and “Unregistered Voters”

LANSING — The Michigan Democratic Party, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), and a Michigan voter submitted a supplemental letter to the Michigan Board of State Canvassers detailing additional indications of apparent fraud in Republican Senate candidates’ nominating petitions. The letter follows the request for investigation submitted last week after a limited review of Republican Senate candidates’ nominating petitions showed indications of apparent fraud. 

Read more:

Detroit News: Dems want probe of Rogers petitions, citing fraud, unregistered voters

• Michigan Democrats are urging state election officials to investigate the nominating petitions submitted by Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, claiming they’ve found indicators of potential fraud by circulators and unregistered voters among the signers that could affect over 15,000 of his signatures.
• The request for a probe, submitted late Thursday to the Michigan Board of State Canvassers, follows up on an earlier request from the same parties last week urging the board to look into the petitions of Rogers and other GOP Senate candidates, including former U.S. Reps. Justin Amash of Cascade Township and Peter Meijer of Grand Rapids Township, as well as Grosse Pointe businessman Sandy Pensler. Meijer withdrew from the race in late April.
• Senate candidates are required to submit 15,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot. Democrats are calling into question nearly 16,000 of the 30,000 that Rogers submitted in late April. 
• The Thursday letter from lawyers for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Michigan Democratic Party contends that a sample of Rogers’ petition sheets showed 23% were from people who aren’t registered to vote in Michigan and, thus, not qualified to sign. They argue that as many as 6,500 of the nearly 30,000 signatures that Rogers submitted could be invalid on that basis if a similar portion of signers are unregistered across his entire petition set.
• The Democrats also claim to have found indicators of fraud associated with the petition sheets of at least 18 circulators for Rogers, who submitted nearly 12,300 signatures in total for Rogers’ nomination.
• They allege that the circulators submitted petitions with address errors, misspelled names and inconsistent handwriting that could indicate fraud, including “roundtabling,” in which circulators pass a petition sheet around a table to a group of signers.
• Lawyers for the Democrats, led by Christopher Trebilcock, say the state canvassers have previously held that fraud by a circulator on one sheet “calls into question” the validity of all of that circulator’s submitted petitions.
• “If the board finds that any circulator submitted a fraudulent petition sheet, it should invalidate all of that circulator’s sheets — for any candidate,” Trebilcock wrote.
• The letter cites declarations from six voters whose names appear on Rogers’ petition sheets but who say they never signed and 13 others who say they have no recollection of signing the petitions.
• Among those was Mary Alexander of Flint, who said she didn’t fill out the form and who also noted her brother, DeWayne Washington, also didn’t sign because he’s been dead since 2022, according to her affidavit.
• In another example, the Democrats noted that circulator Dennis Rodzik turned in petition sheets with 84 signatures purported to be collected on the same day in geographically opposite sides of the state ― from 10 different counties, Genesee to Oakland, Kent and Grand Traverse counties, among them.
• “The new indications of apparent fraud are deeply concerning and demand immediate action,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes said in a statement.
• Complaints about petition signatures have led to the removal of Democratic and Republican candidates from the ballot in recent years. If this latest complaint is substantiated, it could upend the crowded GOP primary Senate contest set for Aug. 6.
• In 2022, a signature fraud scandal ultimately blocked five Republican gubernatorial candidates from Michigan’s primary ballot. In that episode, state election officials invalidated thousands of signatures submitted by the campaigns, finding most had been forged by petition circulators. Criminal charges were later filed against several of the signature collectors.

Bridge Michigan: Dems claim ‘potential fraud’ in Mike Rogers signatures

• Democrats are renewing their call for the state Board of Canvassers to review nominating petition signatures from U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers and potentially disqualify the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. 
• The Michigan Democratic Party and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee… last week first urged the state to investigate petitions from four GOP candidates. 
• In a new letter released Friday, Democrats alleged “potential fraud” associated with petition sheets from 18 circulators who collected a combined 12,293 of Rogers’ 30,000 signatures. They also provided declarations from six voters whose names appear on Rogers’ petitions but say they never signed. 
• But Democrats contend they’ve identified various “errors and markers” on Rogers’ petitions that are similar to fraudulent signatures that led canvassers to kick multiple GOP gubernatorial candidates off the ballot in 2022. 
• Among other things, the new letter questions the legitimacy of signatures from areas of the state geographically far apart, and voters listed on nominating petitions who are not registered to vote in Michigan.
• “If the Board finds that any circulator submitted a fraudulent petition sheet, it should invalidate all of that circulator’s sheets—for any candidate, in addition to any signatures across the petition that are found to be invalid for other reasons,” Chris Trebilcock, an attorney representing Democrats, wrote in the letter.

Michigan Advance: Democrats lodge new fraud allegations against Rogers’ U.S. Senate petitions 

• New allegations of “apparent fraud” have been submitted to the Michigan Board of State Canvassers (BSC), this time focusing on the nominating petitions of former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-White Lake) in his run for the U.S. Senate.
• The Michigan Democratic Party (MDP), the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and a Michigan voter, Emily Judd, initially asked the BSC on May 17 to investigate the nominating petitions of four of the five candidates seeking the GOP nomination — Rogers, as well as former U.S. Reps. Justin Amash (I-Cascade Twp.) and Peter Meijer (R-Grand Rapids), and businessman Sandy Pensler. The complaints allege instances of “potential forgery,” among other accusations.
• The supplemental letter, which included more than 160 pages of exhibits, alleged that Rogers’ nominating petitions contain 12,293 signatures submitted by circulators who “potentially engaged in fraud,” while a review of Rogers’ sample showed that approximately 23% of signatures were from unregistered voters. 
• “If that figure is extrapolated to the entire universe of signatures, a total of 15,965 signatures may be implicated, bringing Rogers below the 15,000 signature threshold,” stated a press release. 
• Among the allegations in the supplemental letter are that six voters say their names and signatures were forged on petition sheets for Rogers, as they did not fill out or sign them. Included among them is a declaration from Mary Alexander that her brother, DeWayne Washington, whose name appears on the same sheet as hers, was deceased. And, in fact, included among the exhibits in the letter is a copy of his 2022 obituary.
• “I hear a lot of allegations from Republican candidates and other Republicans about dead voters voting,” he said. “Well, if dead voters shouldn’t vote, should dead voters sign petitions?”

WLNS: Dems point to ‘additional indications of apparent fraud’

• Nineteen Michigan voters have issued declarations that they “did not sign or do not recall signing” the nominating petitions of Republican candidates for the United States Senate, Michigan Democratic Party officials said Friday.
• The allegation is one mentioned in a “supplemental letter” by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Michigan Democratic Party and voter Emily Judd, a week after the party submitted an initial request to the Michigan Board of State Canvassers for an investigation into “at least five indications of fraudulent signatures.”
• The initial document on Friday, May 17 said the organizations intend “to call the Board’s attention to potential fraud in the nominating petitions of” Republican U.S. Senate candidates Mike Rogers, Sandy Pensler, Justin Amash and Peter Meijer.
• MDP’s statement on Friday also alleged that “a review of [Candidate Mike] Rogers’ sample showed that approximately 23% of signatures were from unregistered voters.”
• MDP Chair Lavora Barnes made the following statement: “Given that Michigan voters have now submitted declarations stating that they did not sign the petitions, the Bureau of Elections and Board of Canvassers must uphold their responsibility to protect the integrity of Michigan’s elections and conduct a full, thorough investigation. The Board of State Canvassers must conclusively determine that the Republican Senate candidates have each submitted 15,000 valid signatures before taking any vote to certify them to appear on the ballot.”

Washington Examiner: Michigan Democrats push for investigation to disqualify Mike Rogers from ballot

• Michigan Democrats are reiterating their calls for an investigation into Republican Senate candidates’ petition signatures after claiming evidence of fraud and potential forgery that has similarly disqualified several Great Lakes State candidates in the past.
• Counsel for the Michigan Democratic Party and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sent a second letter to the Michigan Board of State Canvassers on Thursday detailing other instances of alleged fraud on behalf of Senate GOP candidate and former Rep. Mike Rogers. The party argues that the number of alleged fraudulent signatures, once removed from the petition, would bring Rogers below the required 15,000 signatures to be on the 2024 ballot.
• In the letter sent by the Elias Law Group, a Democratic-aligned election law firm founded by Marc Elias, the organizations claim potential fraud that could affect nearly 16,000 of Rogers’s signatures. It follows an earlier request from the parties last week to investigate Rogers, as well as the petitions of current Senate candidates Sandy Pensler and former Rep. Justin Amash.
• ”Since we submitted our May 17 letter, we have obtained declarations from six voters who affirmed that, although their names, information, and purported signatures appear on petition sheets for Mr. Rogers, they did not fill out or sign those petition sheets,” co-counsel for the parties wrote. 
• The Democrats contend that a sample of Rogers’s petition sheets shows 23% of people were not registered to vote in Michigan and, therefore, were not qualified to sign, arguing that this could render as many as 6,500 of the nearly 30,000 signatures Rogers submitted invalid. The parties also argue that at least 18 circulators for Rogers, who submitted nearly 12,300 signatures in total for Rogers’s nomination, may have committed fraud, as well.
• “The new indications of apparent fraud are deeply concerning and demand immediate action,” Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes said in a Friday statement. “Given that Michigan voters have now submitted declarations stating they did not sign the petitions, the Bureau of Elections and Board of Canvassers must uphold their responsibility to protect the integrity of Michigan’s elections and conduct a full, thorough investigation.”
• “The Board of State Canvassers must conclusively determine that the Republican Senate candidates have each submitted 15,000 valid signatures before taking any vote to certify them to appear on the ballot,” Barnes said.
• One of the parties’ examples of evidence is a complaint from Mary Alexander, who also confirmed that her brother, DeWayne Washington, could not have signed the same petition sheet that she did because he has been dead since 2022, according to her affidavit. 
• Another example of evidence is that signatures submitted for the Rogers petition appear differently than they do on the sheet for a different candidate, with the groups alleging inconsistent handwriting, misspellings, and address errors as cause for potential fraud.
• The groups also allege that “suspicious patterns” point to fraud, such as Rogers circulator Dennis Rodzik collecting 84 signatures from 10 different counties in Michigan all on one day, Oct. 14, 2023.
• Michigan has a history of candidates being taken off the ballot for signature fraud and related problems. In 2022, former Detroit Police Chief James Craig was a leading candidate for governor before fraudulent signatures threw his campaign off course.

Salon: “Indications of apparent fraud”: GOP candidate may have submitted dead voter’s name to get on ballot

• Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers’ nominating petitions are being called into question by Michigan Democrats who are urging state election officials to examine what they say are “indications of apparent fraud,” the Detroit Free Press reported…
• Senate candidates are expected to submit 15,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot. Democrats claim that over half of Roger’s 30,000 signatures may be illegitimate, with lawyers working for the party claiming to have found “patterns that indicate the presence of potential forgery and other fraudulent signature gathering tactics.”
• The Michigan Board of State Canvassers received the request for a probe late Thursday. The same concerned parties last week asked the board to look into the petitions of other GOP Senate candidates, too, among them former U.S. Reps Justin Amash and Peter Meijer. 
• “The apparent fraud uncovered demands an immediate investigation,” Lavora Barnes, head of the Michigan Democratic Party, said in a statement.
• Democrats say a review of a random sample from Rogers’ petition sheets found that 23 percent of the signatures were from people who are not registered to vote, suggesting 6,500 of the nearly 30,000 signatures his campaign gathered may be invalid.
• They also found indicators that suggest fraud related to the petition sheets that at least 18 signature gatherers for Rogers submitted 12,300 signatures between them. According to Democrats, the petition sheets include misspelled names, incorrect addresses and inconsistent handwriting.
• Six voters whose names appear Roger’s petition sheets say they never signed them, according to the Democratic-comissioned review. An affidavit from one voter states that her brother could not have signed the petition because he died in 2022, The Detroit News reported.
• The Democrats’ lawyers are led by Christopher Trebilcock claimed that state canvassers have previously upheld that fraud by a circulator on one sheet “calls into question” the validity of all the petitions submitted by that circulator, the Detroit News reported.
• “If the board finds that any circulator submitted a fraudulent petition sheet, it should invalidate all of that circulator’s sheets — for any candidate,” Christopher Trebilcock, a lawyer for Democrats, wrote in the letter to state officials.

###