MI-GOV: 2 governor candidates should be disqualified, election officials say

Lansing — The Michigan Bureau of Elections recommended Wednesday that two candidates for governor and one U.S. Senate hopeful be disqualified from the August primary ballot for submitting an insufficient number of petition signatures.

While the most well-known candidates in the races met the signature threshold, Republican Ralph Rebandt and Democrat Kim Thomas, who were running for governor, and Republican Bernadette Smith, who was running for Senate, didn't hit the 15,000 signature standard, according to state election officials.

Rebandt, a longtime Oakland County pastor who now resides in Elmira, submitted 18,214 signatures, just 3,214 above the 15,000 required of candidates for governor.

The bureau sampled 750 signatures. He needed 618 of them to be valid to make the Aug. 4 ballot. However, only 533 of them were found to be valid. Of the 217 signatures ruled out, 110 came from people who weren't registered to vote, 36 didn't match the signature on file with the state, and 22 listed the voter at an invalid city or township.



https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2026/05/20/ralph-rebandt-kim-thomas-bernadette-smith-governor-senate-candidate/90184541007/