Former Massachusetts governor and current White House hopeful Deval Patrick does not have enough signatures to qualify for next year’s presidential primary ballot in Michigan, according to officials.
According to the Dec. 23 report from the state’s Department of State, the Patrick campaign filed 13,777 signatures, but thousands of those were thrown out because of address, jurisdiction, and date errors, meaning only 8,660 were determined to be valid. That figure is more than 2,600 signatures short of the required number to appear on the March 10 ballot. The staff recommendation from the Department of State is to “[d]etermine petition insufficient,” according to the report.
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On Friday, the Michigan Board of State Canvassers voted 4-0 to find the nominating petition of Patrick to be insufficient, according to a Department of State spokesman. The spokesman said there were no representatives from the Patrick campaign present at the meeting.
For the ballot, eligible candidates include those who are on a list of “the individuals generally advocated by the national news media to be potential candidates” that was issued by the Secretary of State on Nov. 8, or those candidates who were identified by each party’s state chairperson and was filed with the Michigan secretary of state on Nov. 12.
News broke on Nov. 11 that Patrick, a Democrat, was considering a White House run, and he officially launched his campaign on Nov. 14. Neither Patrick nor his aides called the Michigan Democratic Party and asked to be placed on the ballot in the hours after he floated a White House bid, which would have avoided the scramble for signatures.
Party officials in Michigan submitted a list of 18 names for the ballot, some of whom have since dropped out. They included former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg because, a party spokesman told the Globe, Bloomberg reached out and asked to be placed on the ballot, something that Patrick did not do.
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Earlier this month, Patrick’s campaign issued a statement calling on the Michigan Democratic Party to request that the secretary of state add his name to the ballot instead of making him collect 11,000-plus signatures. The secretary of state’s office indicated that making an exception for Patrick would violate state law.
Patrick campaign spokeswoman Aleigha Cavalier said in a statement Friday that the campaign “was forced to collect more signatures than any other campaign, and did so.”
“Michiganders deserve to be able to choose from their full range of choices for President, and we’re weighing our options to ensure that Deval Patrick is on the ballot in Michigan on March 10th,” she said.
James Pindell of Globe staff contributed to this report.
Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him @Danny__McDonald.