Five of the ten Republican candidates for governor in the Michigan primary, including the top two entrants, may be booted off the ballot because a sizable portion of the signatures they each got on the petitions to qualify for the election were faked, the Detroit News reports.

Former Detroit police Chief James Craig and businessman Perry Johnson, the front-runner and the wealthiest candidate respectively, are at risk of missing the ballot, according to the finding by the Michigan Bureau of Elections.  The bureau found that a firm hired by many of the GOP candidates, had forged at least 68,000 signatures across all their clients’ petitions.

Financial adviser Michael Markey, Michigan State Police Capt. Michael Brown and entrepreneur Donna Brandenburg would also be kicked off the ballot if the findings stand.  The determinations would upend the GOP primary, which is scheduled for August 2nd. 

The bureau found that 36 signature solicitors forged or fabricated the names on the petitions themselves.  Candidates needed 15,000 signatures to qualify; typically, a percentage of signatures are deemed invalid for a variety of non-fraudulent reasons such as the signer being barred from voting or the person is not a registered voter in the jurisdiction.

“In total, the bureau estimates that these circulators submitted at least 68,000 invalid signatures submitted across 10 sets of nominating petitions,” the report said. “In several instances, the number of invalid signatures submitted by these circulators was the reason a candidate had an insufficient number of valid signatures.”

Craig submitted 21,305 signatures, but more than 11,000 were deemed invalid.  Johnson submitted more than 23,000 signature, but in excess of 9,300 were “facially invalid” according to the bureau.