(Source: MIRS.news, Published 08/25/22) Bureau of Elections staff recommended Thursday the Board of State Canvassers put Promote the Vote 2022 and Reproductive Freedom for All on the November ballot after both received at least the minimum number of signatures.
Of the 752,288 signatures filed to the Bureau, 596,375 signatures were deemed valid, which is 146,288 signatures above the minimum number needed to get on the ballot.
The staff report showed that the majority of errors to both petitions were by signers who were not registered to vote or the signature did not match the qualified voter file signature.
The Promote the Vote 2022 petition was estimated to contain 507,780 valid signatures, which is 62,760 more than the minimum required. The petition drive turned in 664,029 signatures, according to Christina Schlitt, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Michigan.
Neither petition, however, is without its challengers
Reproductive Freedom For All, which would put a woman's right to an abortion into the state constitution, is being challenged by a coalition of the Catholic Church and Right to Life of Michigan on the basis that the petition language has numerous run-on words that make the wording gibberish.
“The text of the amendment is filled with run-on words that are incomprehensible, making an already confusing amendment impossible to understand,” said Christen Pollo, a spokesperson for Citizens to Support MI Women and Children.
Reproductive Freedom for All members responded to the challenge by saying people have been able to read the petition. They also provided an affidavit from the printer stating spaces are included in the full text of the proposed amendment.
The staff reported that the reproductive petition was submitted March 7, and the only conditional approval of the form at the March 23 canvassers meeting was removing a “the” from before the word “constitution.”
The report states the petition includes the same letters, arranged in the same order, as the petition conditionally approved March 23 and removed “the” from the petition. It states there is no election law requiring a certain amount of space between letters or words on a petition.
“It does not provide requirements as to spacing or ‘kerning’ – the term for adjusting the space between characters in proportional font,” the report stated.
The Defend Your Vote challenge to Promote the Vote 2022 stated the petition failed to include all the constitutional provisions that would be struck down if the ballot measure were to pass, specifically the 10-day voting period that would change the single-day election and the prohibition of or “burdening the fundamental right to vote.”
The Promote the Vote lawyers argued the amendment doesn’t strike anything down and that a single-day election would remain as it always has been.
The staff report states a provision that could be affected by a proposed amendment doesn’t mean it would be struck down or altered by the amendment but gave no recommendation about the legal merit of the argument raised.
“Michigan voters are now one step closer to having their fundamental right to vote respected and protected in the Michigan Constitution regardless of where they live, what they look like, or what candidate they support,” Schlitt said.
The State Board of Canvassers is expected to meet Aug. 31 for final approval or rejection of the constitutional ballot initiatives.
