Michigan Bureau of Elections waives fees, admits error led to Doug Lloyd’s late AG campaign filing

A spokesperson for the department confirmed to Michigan Advance that the full complaint had not been resolved, only the portion pertaining to the failure to file.

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The Michigan Democratic Party initially filed the complaint against Lloyd on Thursday. 

Lloyd’s campaign had told the Advance on Thursday that the Michigan Department of State’s Bureau of Elections provided the campaign with an incorrect deadline to file its pre-election finance filing, causing the discrepancy.

Under the Michigan Campaign Finance Act, pre-election reports — including those in the lead-up to each party’s nominating convention, which will take place for the Republicans on Aug. 22 — are due 11 days prior to the event, making Lloyd’s filing due on Aug. 11. The complaint filed by the state’s Democratic Party asserts, in line with online records in Michigan’s campaign finance database, that Lloyd filed his report a day late, on Aug. 12.

However, according to an email provided by Keith Schipper, a spokesperson for the Lloyd campaign, a staff member at the Bureau of Elections told the treasurer of Lloyd’s campaign that the pre-convention report was due on Aug. 16 and the close of books for the report was Aug. 11.

“We always seek to assist campaigns in understanding campaign finance requirements, and we regret that we provided accurate information in response to your question,” the Friday letter from the Department of State said. “Accordingly, we are taking the action described above. However, in the future the campaign should also review our website, materials, applicable laws, and notifications from our office to confirm compliance with filing due dates.”

The letter also notes that “candidate committees supporting candidates seeking nomination at a convention were provided notice of the correct due date” in early August, though Schipper said that the Lloyd campaign never received that notice.

The complaint also argued that the listed campaign contributions and expenditures, which show that its latest reported contribution is on Feb. 28, 2026, and its last reported expenditure is on Jan. 17, 2026, are “entirely implausible” for a report spanning from Jan. 1 to Aug. 6, 2026.

The letter from the Michigan Department of State did not address that portion of the complaint.

In a statement to the Advance, Michigan Democratic Party Chair Curtis Hertel said, “the fact that the report was filed late, because the Lloyd campaign is apparently unable to subtract 11 days from the date of the convention on their own, is the least concerning aspect of all of this.”

“By the Lloyd campaign’s own account, once the campaign learned that they had blown the deadline, they made the intentional decision to file a false and illegal campaign finance report,” Hertel said. “Their report certifies that its ‘contents are true, accurate and complete,’ but entirely omits more than five months of campaign-finance activity they were required to report.”