Michigan goes full Putin to disqualify challengers to Dem governor | Eastern NC Now

Vladimir Putin always sailed through presidential and parliamentary elections because he had his election officials disqualify any serious opponents, leaving just weak nominal opponents.  Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, known for her heavy handed totalitarin tactics in her Covid overreach, seems to be trying the same tactic to eliminate serious opponents.  Polls are showing she is highly vulnerable, so she uses heavy handed tactics to eliminate the serious opposition.

Whitmer's Democrat election officials have gone hog wild in invalidating signatures on the required nominating petitions of major candidates, and threw out enough that they now say the petitions lack the required number of signatures.  They are moving to disqualify half of the ten candidates opposing Whitmer, including the highest polling challenger, black Republican former Detroit police chief James Craig, and the best funded, Republican businessman Perry Johnson.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/michigan-moves-to-toss-gop-candidates-james-craig-perry-johnson-from-race-to-oust-whitmer

One could call this a banana republic tactic, but it is worse than that.  It is going full Putin to attack democracy itself.