By Jon King/jking@whmi.com


Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office is defending the April 21 deadline for candidates to file petitions to get on the August primary election ballots despite the COVID-19 pandemic, calling the deadline a "necessary cog in Michigan's election machinery."

The Detroit News reports that the AG’s office filed its response Friday to a lawsuit by 11th District Republican U.S. House candidate Eric Esshaki of Birmingham, who argued the state's stay-at-home order had made it impossible for him to collect the required 1,000 valid signatures by the deadline to get on the ballot. Esshaki, who hopes to challenge Democratic Congresswoman Haley Stevens, sued Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Elections Director Jonathan Brater, contesting the signature requirement saying it placed candidates in the position of either having to break the law or forgo running for public office altogether.

The state says the burden is not “overly severe” and that three candidates in the 11th district have already filed their petitions, including Stevens and Republican candidates Frank Acosta and Whittney Williams. The state's response came after Esshaki, a lawyer, said officials offered to extend the petition deadline for him to May 5 to resolve the suit. But he argued that the overall April 21 deadline amid the stay-at-home order could help protect Democratic incumbents. In a press release, Esshaki said the offer was an indication of “how worried Gov. Whitmer and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson are” about his lawsuit. "They sent an offer to create a special and likely unconstitutional loophole for me, in return for allowing their unconstitutional policy to remain unchallenged."

Nessel spokeswoman Kelly Rossman-McKinney told the Detroit News that Esshaki's comment was "inaccurate, unfortunate and in fact violates federal rules of confidentiality", further alleging he was using the current state of emergency as a “publicity opportunity." Esshaki denies he violated rules of confidentiality and asserted the Attorney General's Office was inventing "facts to bully their opponent into silence,” adding that "This raises the question as to why they don't want the public to know what they are doing behind closed doors.”

State elections officials have yet to say whether they will change the ballot requirements in advance of the April 21st deadline, although Gov. Whitmer indicated Thursday that there were conversations underway with more information coming this week.