Federal judge: John Conyers back on primary ballot

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: WDIV TV4 Detroit

DETROIT -

Despite the county and state's rulings that he's not eligible for the ballot, a federal judge has ruled Rep. John Conyers (D-Detroit) will appear on the 2014 primary ballot.

The veteran lawmaker appealed a ruling by the Wayne County Clerk that he didn't submit enough valid nominating petitions to qualify for ballot. The Secretary of State seconded that ruling with a report released Friday, denying the appeal.

"Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett correctly determined that Congressman Conyers' failure to submit a minimum of 1,000 valid signature renders him ineligible to appear on the August 5, 2014 primary election ballot," the Secretary of State report concluded.

Hundreds of Conyers' petition signatures were invalidated because it was discovered that some of his petition gatherers were not registered Michigan voters as required by law.


Read more: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/john-conyers-ballot-appeal-denied/26140352

---

Also saw a NY Times banner.

This whole thing was a shame. You can't be sloppy.

[iandhr]

1. I have said this before.

As someone who has gathered signatures for many candidates Conyers gets zero sympathy from me. For A 40 year incumbent getting 1,000 valid signatures should be a cake walk.

[monmouth3]

2. If he were a repub DU would be in riotous mode...n/t

[iandhr]

5. Exactly

[CreekDog]

6. the voters get sympathy from me

if voters signed a legitimate petition, those signatures should be counted.

[iandhr]

7. MI law said the people collecting the signatures have to be registered voters.

If he didn't know that he shouldn't be on the ballot.

[jeff47]

10. You're assuming the person collecting the signatures did not lie.

Which would be an effective dirty trick - Person is registered. Has registration card. Moves. Then is sent to volunteer.

They're no longer properly registered, but they've got a card and the registration number would be in the database if the campaign checked.

(I have no idea if that happened)

[Fred Sanders]

3. I would like to see the full ruling from the Judge, here is part of it:

"As Secretary Johnson implicitly acknowledged in her ruling issued today, if the signatures excluded pursuant to the Registration Statute may not be excluded from Mr. Conyers’ total – and this Court
holds that they may not be – then Mr. Conyers has enough signatures to qualify for placement on the ballot. He shall be placed on the ballot," reads Leitman's conclusion.
--______________________


Essentially there were more than enough signature, the allegation of the people doing the registering, of qualified Michigan residents and voters, is not worthy of the punishment.

[struggle4progress]

17. There are prior court rulings that requiring petition-circulators to be registered voters

unduly infringes on free speech. The state obviously has a compelling interest in requiring signatories to be registered voters, but there is no obvious compelling reason to require petition-circulators to be registered voters

[MADem]

23. +1 nt

[COLGATE4]

34. Just another version of Rethugs' voter supression tactics. nt

[nikto]

4. Don't EVER count out...

GOP dirty tricks of some sort.



Entirely possible.

[iandhr]

8. This was incompetence from the Conyers camp.

[napi21]

9. I disagree. The signators were valid registered voters, one or more of the people

gathering the signatures were not. The fed. ruling is:

In other words, Leitman ruled Michigan's requirement that petition gatherers must be registered voters isn't Constitutional.

[nikto]

11. There's a 75% chance...

Some of those signature-gatherers were GOP plants.


I am dead serious.

If you don't consider that a least a possibility worth looking into,
then you are a Republican.


synonyms:
Republican=Crook

[former9thward]

13. So after 50 elections Conyers is hiring Republicans to get his signatures?

Ok., whatever you want to think...

[nikto]

16. That's a classic GOP-Phrased answer ("hiring"?)

Answered like a true Republican.

If you aren't Republican, then what are you doing thinking and
phrasing BS questions like they habitually do?


Conyers wouldn't knowingly hire a GOPer.
That's an absurd response, but typical for a GOPer, I'm afraid.

Knowingly hire? Ofcourse not (and you know that too, don't you?).

But the GOP could certainly sneak a few in.

I have watched local Conservative operatives chase people away from the polling place,
so this is for real in America today, in some areas.

It is a possibility in this case too.

It's called, uh, stealth.

Part of the GOP playbook.

Have a great Conservative day.

[former9thward]

19. You are the type that Conyers would roll up his eyes at.

Once he got away from you.

[7962]

18. Thats what i was thinking. He doesnt have his own people? Come on.

[okaawhatever]

20. He hired two companies. One of the companies is owned by a guy whose brother works for

his opponent but his opponent is a Democrat. The area is so heavily Democratic that the Dem primary is pretty much the election. I don't know that there was anything crooked though, there was something else kind of odd because two of the petition gatherers had registered to vote in December and there was some sort of "delay" that didn't allow them to be registered until March. The delay supposedly happened at the registrar's office. Also, they turned the petitions in before the deadline and it was ruled that Conyers wasn't eligible with two days left to gather signatures so if they didn't think they would win in court they could have rushed out and gathered more signatures.

[former9thward]

12. No, they were not valid registered voters.

At least 800 were not.

Conyers turned in 2,000 signatures and more than 800 were disqualified for a variety or reasons, ranging from the signature wasn’t from a registered voter or that voter didn’t live in the district, the petition was misdated or contained an improper address.

Another 644 signatures were thrown out by Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett because they were obtained by circulators who were either not registered voters or weren’t properly registered to vote. As a result, Garrett ruled that Conyers had turned in only 592 valid signatures and she threw him off the ballot.

http://www.freep.com/article/20140523/NEWS01/305230097/John-Conyers-challenge-primary-ballot

[yeoman6987]

26. I don't think anybody but the actual candidate should collect signatures

If you want the job, you should have to make the effort to have the requirements met. That is a big problem with our politics. The actual politicians don't do a thing.

[sofa king]

30. That's a really interesting view, yeoman!

Made me think a lot. It seems to me that your idea is pretty workable in highly populated districts, but it might be considered an unfair burden in the states with low population densities (even then, they have cities in them!), like the 3-electoral vote states.

There is also the problem that while the idea sounds perfect for Representatives, it becomes a practical impossibility for Presidential candidates to reach and personally collect the signatures of all 50 states, or not appear on the ballot. It would be worse if the primary system is unchanged and a candidate has to do it at least twice in a year.

The flyover states would be universally ignored in the campaign, a practical outcome which might be considered un-Constitutional (as if they are not ignored already), and the travel costs would skyrocket.

Think what would happen if a second Hitler came to America, backed by Lufthansa or some other corporate giant as Hitler was, armed with his own free private plane and the ability to reach multiple locations in a single day.

Oh, wait. That already happened.

Never mind.

[yeoman6987]

35. You certainly made some interesting facts

Of course, when I spout comments, a lot of times I do not think everything through AND of course everything is much easier in my imagination then actual reality. Thank you so much for your post.

[sofa king]

44. You're a thoughtful person, yeoman!

One of the many reasons I stick around here, and have for so long.

[FrodosPet]

36. Rep Conyers is 85 years old

People of his age shouldn't have to go walking around door-to-door hustling signatures. Granted, he would have an entourage, but that is a lot to ask of anybody.

I'm pretty sure most of us would be hard pressed to do the job of a congressman at 85. Throw in campaigning, that's a plateful for a 75 year old.

And now we should add collection of 1000 signatures to the burden?

[MADem]

39. That's kind of crazy. How's he supposed to represent his district if

he's going house to house in his district? He's an old man, too.

It's a long way to DC where he works, ya know.

And not all states have the same requirement, so it's an unequal burden, really.

He could hold a few "in district" rallies and have helpers at the door, screening people and asking if they'd be willing to endorse, and that's not a bad idea, but there's a reason that congresspeople have staff--to free them up to do the important work.

[Corey_Baker08]

22. My Thoughts Exactly..

Rep Conyers is well known in his district, across the state of Michigan & has name recognition across the entire country for standing up for issues such as civil rights, workers rights, unions rights, I find it hard to believe that Rep Conyers had any trouble at all getting 1000 valid signatures...unless in which case Republicans thought they could pull a fast one...

idk the issue very well but jus sayin'

[Judi Lynn]

14. Judge allows US Rep. Conyers to be on ballot

Judge allows US Rep. Conyers to be on ballot

By ED WHITE and JEFF KAROUB, Associated Press | May 23, 2014 | Updated: May 23, 2014 6:05pm

DETROIT (AP) — A judge on Friday ordered U.S. Rep. John Conyers' name placed on the August primary ballot, trumping Michigan election officials who said the Democrat was ineligible because of problems with his nominating petitions.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Matthew Leitman capped a turbulent day of law and politics and appeared to diminish the possibility that Conyers — No. 2 in seniority in the House — might have to mount a write-in campaign to keep his 50-year congressional career alive.

Conyers needed 1,000 petition signatures to get a spot in the Democratic primary. But many petitions were thrown out because the people who gathered names weren't registered voters or listed a wrong registration address. That left him more than 400 short.

But Leitman issued an injunction putting Conyers on the ballot. He said a Michigan law that puts strict requirements on petition circulators is similar to an Ohio law that was struck down as unconstitutional by a federal appeals court in 2008.

More:
http://www.chron.com/news/politics/article/Judge-allows-US-Rep-Conyers-to-be-on-ballot-5500294.php

[lostincalifornia]

28. The judge appears to be using a similar federal ruling to base her decision, so I see nothing wrong

with it.

[McCamy Taylor]

15. Conyers is a Democratic treasure, meaning that anyone who does not think this is GREAT news...

...should be forced to watch the Lewinsky hearings over and over again, until they realize just how great a Democratic national treasure John Conyers is.

This whole thing stinks like last years unwashed gym socks. People who are not even registered voters---meaning that they are not the type of people you would usually consider "political"--- decide to get mighty political and get out there collecting the signatures of registered voters who want to see Conyers doing what he always does---telling the GOP to their faces what they are and where they can take it.

It is entirely possible that someone found some folks who were not registered voters and told them to go get signatures. That someone in the SOS office (Ruth Johnson, Republican---but we knew that without looking, didn't we?) knew that unregistered voters would be bringing in signatures.

Oh, how I wish that someone in the DOJ would investigate this one. Talk to the folks who collected the signatures. See if any of them had any outstanding charges that were dropped. Offer them immunity to talk. I think we would uncover a huge, nasty smelly can of Republican dirty trick worms.

Remember, the Voting Rights Act guarantees your right to have your vote counted as well as your right to cast it. Your right to put someone's name on a ballot should be as important as your vote---and you should have just as much right to have that counted as you have to cast it. Would it be fair to people who wanted to put Conyers on the ballot to say "Ha, ha! You got punked! We took away your right by having someone who wasn't registered gather your signature"? Wouldn't that be like putting an extra ballot box at the voting place and then throwing it out afterwards on the grounds that it wasn't a "real" ballot box and anyone who put their ballot in there doesn't get their vote counted?

[former9thward]

21. Just in the interest of accuracy ...

800 of the signatures were not registered voters. They were thrown out and it did not matter who got them. Also the SOS may be a Republican but the initial denial was made in Wayne County which is Democratic. So much for that CT. Also I don't think you have been around campaigns much. "Somebody" did not just get "somebody" to get signatures. That is not how campaigns are run. Especially a congressman who has been in 25 elections.

[MADem]

24. Where are you getting this eight hundred number?

I heard he was four hundred short and that was because the problem was with the person (or maybe two persons) gathering the signatures supposedly not being registered to vote (which has been successfully challenged in court), not the status of the signers.

By allowing those signatures collected by those people, he had enough, is the way I understood it.

TIA.

[former9thward]

25. From the Detroit Free Press.

Conyers turned in 2,000 signatures and more than 800 were disqualified for a variety or reasons, ranging from the signature wasn’t from a registered voter or that voter didn’t live in the district, the petition was misdated or contained an improper address.

Another 644 signatures were thrown out by Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett because they were obtained by circulators who were either not registered voters or weren’t properly registered to vote. As a result, Garrett ruled that Conyers had turned in only 592 valid signatures and she threw him off the ballot.

http://www.freep.com/article/20140523/NEWS01/305230097/John-Conyers-challenge-primary-ballot

[MADem]

38. Thanks for clarifying! I had not seen THAT number, just the other one.

Love to know what constituted a "misdated" application-- 2/4/2014 instead of 4/2/2014, for example? As well as an "improper address...Street not St? Road not Rd?

I think this was an important lesson for Conyers and any incumbent that needs to collect signatures to get on a ballot, in any event. They can't outsource that stuff, they need a couple of loyal and faithful staffers to ride roughshod on anyone collecting signatures.

Personally, I prefer the paradigm where campaign contributors and workers are invited to help, and they gather anywhere from fifty to a hundred apiece, sometimes even fewer--not a huge number, and odds are they know most of the people they're asking. You get fewer bad signatures that way. This is common practice in some parts of New England.

[former9thward]

41. Yes, you are absolutely right.

I needed a few hundred signatures to run for judge in my city. I turned in almost 1000 relying on friends and myself. It took a lot of time but worth it talking to potential voters.

[BumRushDaShow]

31. "a congressman who has been in 50 elections."

As a quibble - being in "50 elections" would mean that he served in Congress for 100 years... in the interest of "accuracy".

Unfortunately, Conyers has alot of personal family issues between his wife and son. But if we manages to survive this, and with Dingell retiring, he'll be the longest-serving member of the House.

[former9thward]

32. Yes, my mistake.

50 years so 25 elections. I will edit. I simply do not believe anyone should be there that long. Maybe after 20 years they could be an emeritus congressman with no vote but advisory power. Probably not a good solution but congressman for life is not either.

[BumRushDaShow]

33. He really should retire

but the one thing he did (and continues to do) was introduce H.R. 40 every year to remind folks of promises not kept by this government. Of course the biggest promise that he didn't keep was following through with the Downing Street Memos and impeachment after publishing his book on it. Sigh

[MADem]

40. Ted Kennedy did some of his best Senate work in his sunset years.

So did Robert Byrd.

I wouldn't want to see Nancy Pelosi kicked out--that's Luke Russert "Waaah she's OLD" age discrimination, IMO.

I don't think limits should be placed on congresspersons in terms of their time in the institution. I do think that people should demand more of their elected representatives, and I think we need to finance elections so that lobbyists don't have a "hook" ... and we need to get off the "money is speech" bandwagon, because money is NOT speech--money is a bribe, and it leaves the poor without a voice.

[former9thward]

42. Yes, all good arguments.

But so many just are not capable in later years. I don't know a good answer.

[MADem]

43. Maybe take the profit out of staying--then only public servants who are

dedicated to We The People will stay on...

[truthisfreedom]

27. Goody for us.

Screw the gop.

[lostincalifornia]

29. Regardless, one would hope that for as long as Representative Conyers has been around, even if his

name wasn't on the ballot, he should be able to have a campaign to win on a write-in campaign

[yurbud]

37. "you can't be sloppy" because GOP & corporate Dems will use any minor paperwork mistake

to get rid of you.

But corporations and the very wealthy can commit and demand the government commit all kinds of crimes and those same bought pols can't be bothered to enforce serious laws let alone the minor details.