WARREN, Mich. – The state of Michigan is charging three people in connection with phony signatures collected by paid petition circulators working to get multiple Republican candidates on the ballot for governor in 2022.
Just over one year ago, five Republican candidates for Michigan governor were barred from running in the 2022 election for failing to submit enough valid signatures to qualify for the August primary. The Michigan Elections Bureau reviewed the signatures and identified tens of thousands of invalid and fraudulent signatures across the five GOP campaigns.
Multiple non-partisan judicial candidates were also barred from running in the election due to invalid signatures provided by the circulators, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Thursday.
Michigan officials have not accused the gubernatorial candidates of knowingly submitting fraudulent signatures, and the candidates have denied any such claims. Nessel said Thursday that the firms hired by several candidates to collect signatures defrauded and took advantage of the candidates.
The state is charging three individuals behind those petition circulation firms in connection with the fraudulent signatures more than one year later.
According to documents from the 37th District Court in Warren, dozens of charges were brought against three people on Tuesday, June 20: Shawn Wilmoth, 36; Jamie Wilmoth, 36; and Willie Reed, 37. Two of them are from Michigan, though officials did not clarify which two.
Each of them are charged with one count of conducting a criminal enterprise, a 20-year felony charge, in addition to several counts of forgery under the state’s election law, false pretenses with intent to defraud, and fraudulent access to computers. All charges brought against them are felonies.
The fake and fraudulent signatures caused state officials to remove Republican candidates James Craig, Perry Johnson, Michael Brown, Donna Brandenburg and Michael Markey from the gubernatorial race. Brown announced he was dropping out of the race amid the controversy.
The candidates were required to collect 15,000 signatures to qualify for the primary election in August. In total, the bureau said it found over 11,000 invalid signatures for Craig, and more than 9,000 invalid signatures for Johnson -- two candidates who were expected to be the top Republican contenders in the election. More than 42,000 fraudulent signatures were tossed from the campaigns of Brown, Brandenburg and Markey, officials said.
Petition signatures for Tudor Dixon, who later emerged as the Republican nominee for Michigan governor, were also challenged, but she was allowed to run. Dixon was defeated by incumbent Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who secured her second term in office.
The Michigan Democratic Party said last year that a number of petition circulators who worked for multiple GOP candidates were believed to have forged thousands of signatures using a process called “round-robining.” Through this process, a small group of people takes turns writing names, addresses and fake signatures on different lines on multiple petition sheets using a list of real voters, hoping the variation in handwriting makes the petition appear authentic.
Shawn and Jamie Wilmoth were arrested Wednesday and were expected to be arraigned Thursday. Willie Reed was not in custody as of Thursday morning, but officials said the U.S. Marshals service were looking for him.