Three Republican primary candidates vying for the nomination to the Michigan seat being vacated by retiring Dem Senator Debbie Stabenow are facing the very same type of fraudulent ballot access petition shitshow that felled no fewer than five gubernatorial hopefuls back in 2022, the AP reports.

The Michigan Dem Party and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on Friday alleged in a letter sent to the Michigan Board of Canvassers that the campaigns of former Congressmen Mike Rogers and Justin Amash, and businessman Sandy Pensler, have submitted ballot access signatures showing “a possible repeat of the conduct of petition circulators during the 2022 election.”

At least 15,000 signatures were due on April 23. Rogers, the Trump-endorsed frontrunner, submitted 30,000, the maximum permitted (it’s best practice for campaigns everywhere to pad it as much as they can to withstand challenges). Pensler submitted 26,000. Amash’s campaign didn’t respond to the AP’s request for comment. Worth noting is that the 2022 gubernatorial bid by former auto industry exec Perry Johnson submitted more than 15,000 signatures, which means that Rogers and Pensler at least have a lot of room for error. That said, the fuckery that got Perry Johnson, former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, and three scrubs tossed from the 2022 gov race was borderline systemic. In Craig’s case alone 9,879 out of 14,310 signatures were determined to be fraudulent.

On one hand you’d think that maybe Michigan Republicans would’ve learned and lesson and gotten their shit together and that it’s quite possible that the Dems are needling them just for the hell of it and to cover their bases. On the other, lol if the GOP didn’t learn that lesson and are blowing their chance for the seat by doing the very same stupid shit that blew up their 2022 gubernatorial bid.