The Michigan Secretary of State says an independent candidate should not appear on the November ballot. Capital Correspondent Cheyna Roth reports the Secretary of State is appealing a federal judge’s order to put Christopher Graveline on the ballot as an independent.
Christopher Graveline submitted about half the signatures required to appear on the ballot as an independent candidate for Attorney General. So the Board of State Canvassers rejected his attempt and he sued.
A federal judge said the current requirements have made it so no independent candidates have ever gotten on the state’s ballots since enacted. So she ordered the state to determine if Graveline has 5-thousand signatures. And if he does to put him on the ballot.
Now the state is appealing. And it wants an appellate court to say they don’t have to sort out Graveline’s signatures while they appeal. The state says doing so would get in the way of it trying to get the ballot ready and printed in time.
The Secretary of State’s office asked for a response from the court within two days because it needs to certify the ballot by a week from Friday