Michigan GOP candidate’s Senate petition deemed ‘insufficient’ over signatures

Michigan Republican Bob Carr’s petition for his Senate campaign was deemed “insufficient” after the office of the secretary of state found that more than 3,000 signatures he submitted as part of the application were invalid, a decision that the candidate said he would contest.

The Michigan secretary of state’s office found that 3,017 signatures of 9,546 submitted by Carr to get his name on the primary ballot on Aug. 3 were invalid, leaving him with 6,529 valid signatures, below the 7,500 he needs to secure a place on the ballot.

That led the office to deem Carr’s petition as “insufficient” after a review.

Carr said he would contest the office’s conclusion, adding he had accurately submitted the signatures.

“In their filing they were dreaming up false [scenarios] about our [petitioners], some [whom] they named and put into the public, impugning my [circulators’] reputations,” he told The Hill.

Carr filed the signatures in April, seeking to launch his long shot challenge to John James in the GOP Senate primary. James, seen as a rising star within GOP circles, is the overwhelming favorite in the party’s primary.

Republicans view Sen. Gary Peters (D) as vulnerable. The Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election handicapper, says the Senate race “leans Democratic.”