Leading Candidate for Mayor of Detroit is Removed from the Ballot

On June 12, a Michigan Circuit Court removed Mike Duggan from the August ballot. Duggan is a candidate for Mayor of Detroit and is considered someone who has the potential to win the election, if he can get back on the ballot.

The Detroit charter requires candidates to have been registered to vote in the city for at least one year before filing to get on the ballot. Duggan registered to vote in Detroit on April 16, 2012. The petition deadline was May 14. Duggan had finished collecting his signatures early, so he turned them in on April 2, even though he was free to have turned them in later than that. If he had waited until April 16, there would have been no problem. He has appealed the decision to the State Court of Appeals. He argues that the intent of the law was that candidates must have been registered to vote for a year before the filing deadline. UPDATE: see this commentary about the issue.


Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.