State sticks to Friday deadline to get on August ballot

Officials set a Friday 5 p.m. deadline for candidates running for Congress or local courts to submit petition signatures to get on the August primary ballot. The Bureau of Elections also reduced the signature requirement by 50%. The lower threshold was ordered by a judge in April after candidates said the stay-home order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer would hurt their effort to get people to sign petitions by the original deadline. An appeals court said it was up to the state to come up with a remedy. But the state apparently is sticking with what was ordered by federal Judge Terrence Berg.