Summary: <p>Two years ago, voters in a suburban Detroit congressional district were stunned to learn that their congressman, Thaddeus McCotter, had failed to qualify for the primary election ballot.</p><p>Anyone running for Congress needs to submit 1,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot.</p><p>Turned out his staff had illegally and clumsily photocopied old petition signatures, instead of collecting new ones. McCotter not only retired, but abruptly quit before his term ended.</p><p>That left just one name on the GOP primary ballot: That of Kerry Bentivolio, known informally as “Krazy Kerry,” a reindeer farmer, Santa Claus impersonator, and failed high school teacher.</p><p>Bentivolio is now a congressman, and establishment Republicans are spending millions to try and dislodge him in this August’s primary.</p><p>Now, it seems something similar has happened to John Conyers, a Democrat who has represented Detroit in Congress for half a century. Most of the signatures he submitted seem to have been collected by circulators who weren’t registered to vote.</p><p>One has a criminal record and is a wanted fugitive. It seems very likely that Conyers will not be on the ballot this year.</p><p>If so, it seems that the only name on the Democratic primary ballot will be that of The Rev. Horace Sheffield, a longtime Detroit clergyman with a reputation of his own. Sheffield got his picture in the papers twice in February. Once when he announced for Congress, and once when he was booked on domestic violence charges.</p><p>Sheffield’s spokesman, the equally notorious Adolph Mongo, was then paid by John Conyers to collect petition signatures. No, you can’t make this stuff up.</p><p>By the way, this district is so Democratic, Abraham Lincoln couldn’t possibly get elected as a Republican. So unless Conyers, or someone else, mounts a successful write-in campaign, Sheffield may well join Krazy Kerry in Congress.</p><p>There has to be a better way. The Detroit Free Press is offering a solution that is well-intentioned, but just plain dumb. The paper suggests that both former Detroit Council President Ken Cockrel and Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon launch write-in bids.</p><p>Now, it is true that either of those men, Cockrel especially, would be a far superior choice. However, if both of them were to run as write-ins, it would ensure neither would win.</p><p>What we need instead is a mechanism whereby, in such cases as these, names can be added to the ballot after the filing deadline.</p><p>One state once did something like that with presidential primaries. The secretary of state added anyone thought to be a potential candidate, and it stayed there unless that person asked that their name be removed.</p><p>That might actually be a better system than depending on petition signatures. There may have been a time when excited neighbors went door to door with clipboards to send Mr. Smith to Washington. Today, however, what we usually have is Mr. Longtime Incumbent paying a political consulting firm to collect signatures.</p><p></p><p>Voters deserve the best choices possible for Congress. They often aren’t getting them. What I have suggested may not be the best way of dealing with a situation like this. But it would be a whole lot better than what we have now.</p>
