Michigan Board of State Canvassers leaves Nasser Beydoun off primary ballot
LANSING, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - The Michigan Board of State Canvassers met for nine hours on Friday to decide whether hundreds of candidates have enough signatures to appear on the ballot.
"I move that the board accept the staff recommendation and find the nominating petition filed by Nasser Beydoun insufficient," said board member Anthony Daunt.
It was his use of a post office box instead of a street address on Nasser Beydoun's petition to appear on the ballot for Michigan's U.S. Senate race that will keep him off the ballot.
"You make history by being the first Muslim American ever to get on a U.S. Senate ballot, then to have your nomination basically be discarded because of a minor technicality and 24,000 signatures be invalidated," said Beydoun.
Beydoun says he used a PO box on his petitions out of safety concerns.
"I have a wife; I have children; I need to protect them," he said. "So to have your home address out there where anybody can access it, it makes you want to try and make it as difficult as possible for people to because I get threats all the time on my social media. So, you know, and you never know when somebody's crazy enough is going to act on those threats."
The Board of State Canvassers approved the petitions of more than 300 candidates for offices ranging from local judges up to congressional and senate races. However, the four-member board recognized just how technical some of the requirements were.
"The certification processes are always pretty complicated; a lot of tough choices that have to be made. You know, we operate under strict compliance, meaning you need to follow the law and fill the form out as instructed," Daunt said.
Other candidates who faced challenges to their petitions, like Democrat Curtis Hertel, who is running for Congress, and Mike Rogers, Justin Amash and Sandy Pensler, all Republicans running for the U.S. Senate, were approved to appear on the upcoming ballots.