Some candidates, Governor Gretchen Whitmer among them, have already filed. Five potential Republican opponents have filed to run in the GOP primary. It takes 15,000 signatures of registered voters to qualify for the statewide ballot.
Candidates for Congress and the Legislature will also have to file their petitions.
The next step will be for the state Bureau of Elections to check the filings. Election workers will draw a random sample of signatures and check them against voter records. The process can get contentious when it comes time for that work to be ratified or rejected by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers.
Signature gathering was complicated in this cycle by COVID-19 restrictions. Also, there were fewer people out and about at gathering places where petition circulators collect signatures.
Candidates for Secretary of State, Attorney General, Michigan Supreme Court and university boards won’t run in the August primaries because they are selected at party conventions.