This article was originally published by the Michigan Advance on May 8, 2026. It is republished here under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Any views expressed are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect those of Independent Political Report or the Outsider Media Foundation. Links are included as they appeared in the original article. Title amended for style. Header image added by Independent Political Report.
Independent gubernatorial candidate and former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan posted a video to X saying that, as an independent candidate, he would need to collect 30,000 signatures on a candidate petition in order to make the ballot for the November general election.
“This can’t be legal!” Duggan posted on Friday afternoon, saying that it takes twice as many signatures for an independent candidate to make the ballot than for a candidate who is a member of a party “because they wrote the rules.”
But Michigan Department of State guidance says otherwise — a petition manual for “Candidates Without Political Party Affiliation,” released in February 2026, states that a gubernatorial candidate must submit a minimum of 12,000 signatures, with a maximum of 60,000.
That’s less than it takes for a member of a party to make the August primary ballot, which requires a minimum of 15,000 signatures and allows for a maximum of 30,000 signatures.
Andrea Bitely, a spokesperson for the Duggan campaign, referenced a statutory requirement for nonpartisan statewide candidate petitions to have 30,000 signatures as the policy behind the video.
However, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of State said that the published guidelines of 30,000 signatures are outdated. In 2021, a federal court ruled that those requirements were prohibitive to independent candidates. While the Bureau of Elections enforces the 12,000 signature requirement as ordered by the court, the Legislature has failed to change the statute to align with the enforceable requirements.
The manual and other Department of State guidance notes this, specifically citing that “the minimum number of signatures required for non-affiliated candidates seeking statewide office was reduced from 30,000 to 12,000” based on that case.
Bitely, though, reiterated that what Duggan said is accurate.
“State statute includes a 30,000 signature requirement that was ruled as unconstitutional in 2018. The Secretary of State Manual correctly reflects that court ruling, but to this day, Lansing has never corrected the statute,” Bitely said. “Partisans are certain to try to tie us up in litigation claiming the 30,000 statutory requirement should be reinstated. Mayor Duggan made clear we’re going to meet the higher requirement and make that challenge a moot point.”
Duggan’s video included headlines about the court’s ruling against the prior 30,000 signature requirement, but did not clarify that those requirements are no longer in place.
“I can spend this fall fighting in courts with Republicans and Democrats or spending time with real Michiganders,” he says in the video, before asking viewers to join his petition drive.
Duggan has made a number of statements in interviews regarding the number of signatures required to make the ballot since declaring his candidacy.
In November, he told WLUC in the Upper Peninsula that “to be an independent, I need to file 13,000 signatures, and I’m on the November ballot. So I will be on the November ballot,” and in January, he made similar statements to WPHM in Port Huron, this time citing a 12,000 signature minimum.
But then Duggan’s messaging began to change — in April, at a town hall hosted by WSJM in St. Joseph, he said, “I get on the ballot by filing 30,000 signatures. And so I need help, and I need petitions from every county.” He similarly said in a February interview with Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff, a podcast affiliated with Righteous Media, that he needs 30,000 signatures.
Duggan is seeking to make the November ballot and take on both the Republican and Democratic nominees, who will be determined in the August primary. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson and former federal auditor Kim Thomas are competing for the Democratic nomination. The GOP race features U.S. Rep. John James (R-Shelby Township), Michigan Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Township), former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, businessman Perry Johnson and Ralph Rebandt, a former pastor.
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