There seems to have been some pretty sloppy reporting on this story. Conyers did have more than enough completely valid signatures collected. These signatures were not in dispute other than the fact that Conyers' staff was collecting them. So what? Conyers' staff wasn't registered to vote and the law states anyone who collects signatures must be a registered voter. Why? who know? Since these staffers were not registered to vote, that rendered the signatures they collected invalid. So it was a technicality that left him with only 450 signatures and disqualified them.

But really, it's not as if Conyers was going to have lost the election if this judge hadn't steeped in on his behalf. Just because his name wasn't on the ballot he still would have won the election on a write-in campaign against anyone who ran against him. These were misplaced hopes.