John Conyers Loses Appeal To Get On 2014 Ballot
Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson says America’s second longest-serving congressman (after John Dingell) doesn’t have enough signatures to qualify for the August 5 Democratic primary.
Johnson found that Conyers had 455 valid signatures — almost 140 fewer signatures than Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett recorded last week when she threw the longest-serving African-American in Congress off the ballot. She disqualified hundreds of signatures for Conyers’ candidacy because of voter registration problems with his circulators, putting him below the 1,000 signatures needed to make the ballot.
Johnson said in a Friday report that Garrett correctly determined that Conyers didn’t have the 1,000 valid signatures needed to make the ballot and “renders him ineligible.”The decision means the Rev. Horace Sheffield III of Detroit is still the only Democrat on the ballot for the 13th Congressional District seat, which covers Detroit and other parts of Wayne County.
