Organizers of the effort to recall State Representative Larry Inman have taken their fight to court. The group was informed Friday that the 13,859 petition signatures it gathered were invalid. The Bureau of Elections decided Friday that the omission of the word “Right” from the description of one of three legal charges brought against Inman (“Attempted Extortion Under Color of Official Right (Count 1)”) required invalidation of the recall petition. The Inman Recall Committee submitted filings to the Michigan Court of Appeals requesting emergency relief to proceed with the recall. The committee maintains that the error was harmless and that the invalidation of the petition signatures for this typographical error denies the citizens their constitutional right to a recall process. 

Under state law, the recall effort was required to collect 12,201 signatures in 60 days, representing 25 percent of votes cast for governor in 2018, to trigger an election to recall the state representative. The Inman Recall Committee has requested the Court immediately consider the issue and require the Bureau of Elections to start validating the signatures, ahead of the January 10 deadline to print ballots for a March 2020 primary election.