Multiple candidates for governor and county judge got swept up in the rush to get on the 2022 ballot in Michigan… But in testimony Wednesday in 37th District Court, the onetime candidates and their advisers said they were fooled by a private firm that charged them tens of thousands of dollars to get signatures required by Michigan law to qualify for the ballot.
…candidates were disqualified from the primary ballot because state elections officials deemed thousands of their signatures invalid.
Now, the principals of the signature-gathering firms — Shawn Wilmoth, his wife Jamie Wilmoth-Goodin and Willie Reed — face dozens of years in prison on multiple charges alleging they defrauded campaigns and orchestrated teams of people to forge signatures and illegally fill out petitions.
“I’ve never seen 70,000 (bad) signatures occur (from) 10 candidates,” said [regulatory manager for the Bureau of Elections Adam] Fracassi said.
While the whole affair is disgusting in itself, being yet another example of the level of corruption and tampering in recent elections we've had to endure—where are we anyway? Chicago?—it's hard to sympathize with the disqualified…ermm…~~suckers~~ candidates allegedly swindled by these three.
Just can't get enough?