Michigan governor's race: Whistleblower says Perry Johnson campaign filed falsified petitions

LANSING, Mich. - A consultant for Republican candidate for governor Perry Johnson signed an affidavit Wednesday, contending Johnson's team added required disclaimers to thousands of petitions after people already signed them.

In the nine-page affidavit, which was obtained by The Detroit News, Johnson's campaign staff was accused of unlawful conduct and of running forms featuring about 10,000 petition signatures through a printer after the forms had been signed by voters in order to add an identification statement. That statement, generally mandated to be used on campaign materials, said the forms were paid for by the Johnson campaign.

The allegations came one day before the Board of State Canvassers was scheduled to meet in Lansing to determine which candidates for governor should qualify for the Aug. 4 primary ballot.

As things stood Wednesday, the Michigan Bureau of Elections had already recommended that Johnson, a wealthy businessman from Bloomfield Hills, be given a spot on the ballot. According to the bureau's initial review, he turned in 22,406 valid signatures, more than 7,000 above the required 15,000-signature threshold.

However, that review didn't touch on the new claims from the consultant who works with Johnson's campaign, and it's unclear how the canvassing board will respond to the accusation of petition sheets being run through a printer after they were signed.

The affidavit said it was clear which petitions had been run through a printer because the disclaimers on them were badly slanted or even double-printed.

Johnson, when asked about the allegations Wednesday, said he had no knowledge of his staff doing anything like that. He said he had three groups helping to collect signatures.

"Those three groups, you might want to ask them to see if they did; to my knowledge, I didn't," Johnson said during a press conference on Mackinac Island.

Johnson said the campaign went to "extraordinary lengths in order to make sure that there was no chance that we would ever have a problem."

Johnson, who is in a five-candidate GOP primary race for the Republican nomination for governor, has already spent more than $10 million on TV ads promoting his campaign and has said he'll spend "whatever it takes" to become Michigan's next governor. He made his fortune developing quality controls for the auto industry.

The campaign of U.S. Rep. John James, R-Shelby Township, one of Johnson's top primary opponents, was aware Wednesday of the affidavit from a Johnson consultant.

"This is a serious issue that implicates felony fraud provisions under Michigan law," said Charlie Spies, counsel for the James campaign. "If true, it's hard to imagine Mr. Johnson's campaign perpetrating such a forgery scheme and still being allowed on the ballot."

Michigan's forgery law bans someone from knowingly filing a false document with the intent to defraud.

John Yob, Johnson's campaign adviser, said the James campaign "seemed to have found a potentially fake anonymous person to payoff and make up meaningless and false accusations that will have no impact on the board of canvassers decision tomorrow."

"John James miserably failed in his first attempt to challenge Perry and were publicly embarrassed after his incompetent attorneys lost in court over their illegal logo," Yob added.

Earlier this month, after a lawsuit by the Johnson campaign, a judge decided James had to stop using a campaign logo that might indicate to voters that he's the incumbent.

In 2022, Johnson also ran for governor but didn't make the primary ballot because of a wave of fraudulent petition signatures that led to five Republicans being disqualified.

Asked about the claims against the Johnson campaign in the affidavit, Mark Brewer, an election lawyer and former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, said the allegations pointed to Johnson's "cavalier" approach.

"This is consistent with the so-called quality guru's past mistakes," Brewer said.

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This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 6:00 PM.