John Conyers' III petitions for Aug. ballot fall short, Wayne County says

There could be one less Conyers on the August primary ballot.

The Wayne County Clerk’s office reported Wednesday that John Conyers III doesn’t have enough signatures on his petitions to run for the seat that his father held for 53 years.

His petitions were filled with signatures from people who were not registered to vote, didn’t live in the district or were duplicates, according to the staff report. As a result, the petition for the partial term, which would begin right after the Nov. 6 election and run through the end of the year, had only 880 signatures and the petition for the full-year term had only 905 signatures.

Candidate for Congress must turn in at least 1,000 signatures from valid registered voters who live in the district. Most candidates turn in far more – sometimes up to 2,000 – to ensure they have a cushion if some of the signatures are ruled invalid.

Conyers III turned in 1,914 signatures for the full term and 1,905 signatures for the partial term. The staff review, however, threw out more than 1,000 of those signatures.

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Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett still has to make the final determination on the validity of the petitions sometime after the public has the opportunity to review the staff report over the next two days.

Even though Conyers, the son, may be off the ballot, that doesn’t mean there won’t be a Conyers among the seven Democrats on the August primary ballot. State Sen. Ian Conyers, D-Detroit, the grand-nephew of John Conyers, filed the challenge against John Conyers III's petitions.

Neither John Conyers III nor Ian Conyers returned phone calls from the Free Press Wednesday.

The possible removal of John Conyers III from the ballot repeats a problem his father had in 2014 when the incumbent congressman was almost left off the ballot because several of the people who gathered signatures for his campaign were not registered voters. The issue was taken to federal court and Conyers prevailed, winning reelection that year, only to leave office two years later.

Conyers, an 88-year-old Democrat who was serving his 27th term in the U.S. House of Representatives, resigned his seat in December amidst claims of harassment and verbal abuse of employees and misuse of taxpayer funds to cover-up those claims.

During a campaign appearance in Dearborn Heights last month, John Conyers III said, “While my father I don’t believe was guilty of (sexual harassment), there are always going to be casualties of war when we’re weeding out the people who have been abusers. It may not be fair to my father, but we cannot forget about the sacrifices the women have made just to have an opportunity to be in the room and fight for other women.”

Other Democrats running for the seat are state Sen. Coleman Young of Detroit, former state Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Shanelle Jackson of Detroit, Detroit City Councilwoman Brenda Jones, former Conyers staffer Kimberly Hill Knott of Detroit, and Westland Mayor Bill Wild.

The district covers a portion of Detroit and the Wayne County cities of River Rouge, Ecorse, Redford Township, Dearborn Heights, Highland Park, Westland, Garden City, Inkster, Wayne, and Romulus. The district leans heavily Democratic and Conyers' slimmest margin of victory was 77% in 2016.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal.