(Source: MIRS.news - Staff - Published Mon., March 14, 2022) Three-quarters support from each legislative chamber would be needed to enact citizens initiatives into law and prevent them from going on the ballot, under a Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) constitutional amendment introduced last week.
Currently, a simple majority vote of the House and Senate is required to pass a citizens’ initiative without the Governor's signature. The amendment would raise that to 29 senators and 83 representatives.
Moss said he proposed SJR N to uphold the ability of the public to vote on citizen’s initiatives.
"My resolution ensures the Legislature would need a more reasonable consensus to adopt an initiative, or else it must go on the ballot for a vote by the people," Moss said. "The initiative process in Michigan’s Constitution was meant for the people to enact their own laws, and it ought to be preserved accordingly."
He said the Constitution currently allows citizens to put an initiative on the ballot if they gather enough signatures. But the state Legislature can vote to pass a law before it reaches the ballot, and it can also amend the initiatives in the process.
"Most people who sign a petition for an initiative proposal believe they will eventually be able to vote for it on their ballot, without realizing the Legislature has its say first and can utilize shameful tactics to prevent a public vote," Moss said.
Moss said he’s witnessed several ballot proposals that were passed simply so that the contents could be gutted later.
Moss said that when ballot proposals are adopted by the people, three quarters of the Legislature must agree in order to amend them. He said it makes sense that the opposite should also be true, and three quarters of the Legislature should vote in order to keep a proposal from going to the people.
In addition to the legislative end, Moss said organizations that create petitions can also be deceptive.
"Now you see ballot proposals out in the field that are just designed to collect the bare minimum amount of signatures and go around the legislative process so the governor can’t veto them," Moss said.
Moss said “shady tactics” were recently used by Unlock Michigan, a group that attempted to limit Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s use of emergency powers during the pandemic.
The original petition collected over 540,000 signatures, and the Republican-led Legislature adopted the initiative in July 2021. The Governor wasn’t able to veto the initiative because it was started by citizens through the petition process.
Moss said the organizers of the petition were caught on tape coaching their volunteers to use deception so the petition could reach the Legislature.
Now, Unlock Michigan 2 is attempting to collect signatures on a similar petition that would limit an emergency order declared by the Department of Health and Human Services to 28 days. The group says it needs 425,000 signatures total to pass the initiative.
Other citizen’s initiatives collecting signatures are Let Mi Kids Learn and Secure Mi Vote.
Let Mi Kids Learn is a pair of petitions that would establish scholarships for private school students and make contributions to those scholarships tax deductible. The group needs 340,000 voter signatures for each petition.
Secure Mi Vote is a Republican-led initiative to improve election security by requiring partial Social Security numbers for voter registration and absentee ballot applications. The petition also calls for specific minimum times clerks must accept absentee ballots and prohibits donations to fund elections.
Moss said his proposed amendment acts as "another layer of protection for the people," when dealing with citizen’s initiatives.
Moss’s proposed amendment shares similarities to other legislation recently introduced by him and other Senate Democrats.
SB 604, sponsored by Moss, would prohibit organizations collecting petition signatures from employing individuals who have been convicted of an election crime or forgery.
SB 605, sponsored by Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) would allow voters to remove their name from a petition if they submit a written request before the petition is filed.
Moss said this legislation will also help to protect voters and promote democracy by stopping petition circulators from misleading the public.
