By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


An incumbent state lawmaker will no longer face a Republican challenger in the August primary election.

Republican candidate Chase Turner of Brighton was disqualified from running for the newly redrawn state House 49th District seat. He would have faced incumbent Ann Bollin of Brighton Township.

The Department of State issued letters this week to candidates who will be disqualified from the August 2nd ballot because of defects on the candidate’s affidavit of identity.

Michigan Election Law prohibits filing officials from certifying to the ballot the names of candidates whose affidavits of identity are missing required information or that contain false statements.

Of the 15 candidates disqualified, four candidates were disqualified because of missing information or information that indicated the candidate was not eligible in the jurisdiction.

The state said Turner was among eleven candidates who were disqualified because of false statements regarding the candidate’s compliance with the Michigan Campaign Finance Act. Those candidates were said to have all had outstanding campaign finance reports or unpaid fines at the time they signed their affidavit of identity.

Some of the candidates paid fines after signing their affidavit of identity, or subsequently paid their fines, but then withdrew their affidavits of identity and filed new affidavits.

The state says regardless of steps the candidates took after submitting affidavits of identity with false statements, the Department is prohibited by law from certifying the candidates’ names to the ballots for the primary election because they executed an affidavit of identity containing a false statement.

Democrat Christina Kafkakis is running unopposed for the 49th District in the August primary.

A press release is attached. Facebook photo.