2 found guilty in signature fraud case that rocked 2022 Michigan primary
Two of the three people accused of fraud in a 2022 signature-gathering scandal were found guilty Monday, bringing an end to a nearly four-year saga that kept a number of candidates off the ballot due to phony signatures on their nominating petitions.
The convictions are a rare occurrence. Accusations of fraud — fake signatures, misleading statements, and more — permeate nearly every major election in Michigan, but people are almost never prosecuted, let alone punished, for it.
A Macomb County jury found Shawn Wilmoth and Willie Reed guilty of multiple felonies, including conducting a criminal enterprise and several counts of election law forgery. Jamie Wilmoth-Goodin, the third person accused, was found not guilty.
Ahead of the 2022 election, five Republican gubernatorial candidates and three judicial candidates used firms owned and operated by Wilmoth and Reed to collect the signatures they required to qualify for the ballot. After the candidates — who included former Detroit Police Chief James Craig and 2026 gubernatorial candidate Perry Johnson, turned in their nominating petitions — thousands of their signatures were found to be fraudulent and the candidates were kept off the ballot.
https://www.votebeat.org/michigan/2026/02/10/shawn-wilmoth-willie-reed-forged-signature-fraud-2022-primary-election-guilty-felonies/
= new reply since forum marked as read
