Wilmoth, a man at the center of Michigan’s 2022 election petition scandal, was sentenced to at least four years in prison in suburban Detroit, the Associated Press reported Tuesday. Judge James Maceroni imposed the prison term after Wilmoth’s convictions for forgery and other crimes, the AP said, in a case that prosecutors said involved petition signatures that authorities believed were falsified.
Maceroni agreed to let Wilmoth remain out of prison while he appeals, calling it unusual and saying, “A case like this has never been seen before” in Michigan, according to the report. The judge’s decision means Wilmoth is not yet returning to prison to begin serving the sentence, but the AP reported that he still must post a bond.
The convictions stemmed from petition efforts tied to campaigns for Michigan governor’s Republican primary ballot four years ago. The AP reported that candidates hired Wilmoth to help them gather 15,000 voter signatures needed to qualify. State elections staff later concluded that people effectively sat at a table, signed petitions, and passed them around instead of running the signature collection process campaigns described.
In the end, the AP reported that the petitions contained bogus signatures, and the Republican candidates did not have enough valid signatures to qualify for the primary ballot. No candidate was accused in the report of knowing about the scheme, even as the ballot-access failures removed multiple contenders from the 2022 contest.
The candidates affected included former Detroit Police Chief James Craig and millionaire businessman Perry Johnson, who is running again. Johnson, now seeking the governorship for the next election cycle, told the AP that he plans to ask each voter who signs a petition for him to confirm via text message and he said he will submit “petitions of the highest quality.”
At trial, the AP reported that defense lawyers tried to shift blame by arguing that Wilmoth and co-defendant Willie Reed were defrauded by dozens of petition circulators. Reed was also convicted, the report said.
Prosecutors said the signature effort included substantial campaign spending. The attorney general’s office told the AP that nine campaigns, including some Detroit-area judicial candidates, paid more than $700,000 to businesses affiliated with Reed and Wilmoth to get signatures.
The prosecution’s account described how fraudulent petition practices could translate into ballot-access losses for multiple candidates, while the defense argued the scheme’s responsibility lay elsewhere. Wilmoth’s appeal will determine whether his convictions and sentence remain in place as the case continues through the courts.