Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers, the second-most-senior member of the U.S. House, has failed to qualify for an August primary ballot after state election officials found problems with his nominating petitions.
However, a decision expected later Friday from a U.S. District Court could still undo the ruling against Conyers, who has served in Congress since 1964.
Michigan's Secretary of State's office affirmed a decision by Detroit-area election officials that petition signatures gathered by at least five circulators were invalid "because they were either not registered to vote, not registered to vote while the petitions were being circulated or had addresses on the petitions that didn't match their voter registrations," The Detroit Free Press says.
"As a result, the SOS ruled Conyers had only 455 valid signatures, far short of the 1,000 required by state law," the newspaper says.
Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said the lack of valid signatures "renders [Conyers] 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."Conyers, 85, appealed to Johnson that bureaucratic bungling by the Detroit clerk and Secretary of State's offices led to the voter registration problems of his petition circulators. Restoring hundreds of improperly disqualified signatures would have given Conyers more than the 1,000 signatures needed under state law."
Member station WDET's Quinn Klinefelter reports that "Conyers and the American Civil Liberties Union [have] filed a lawsuit challenging the requirement on grounds that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional when applied in other states."
A ruling on that case could come as early as Friday, when Detroit U.S. District Judge Matthew Leitman is expected to issue his decision. He has called it "an exceptionally difficult case."
Conyers has vowed to stage a write-in campaign if he loses the lawsuit.
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