Posted at June 16, 2008 @ 12:48 pm by in Uncategorized
Of all these petition-drives, the Michigan Taxpayer’s Alliance’s effort to recall Michigan Speaker of the House Andy Dillon has been the most contentious and most remarkable. The initiative, led by Leon Drolet, has been beset by blockers nearly from the start.
Now Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land has thrown out the petition, saying it lacks valid signatures. Anyone observing this fiasco can take a few lessons from it.
- Land declared 49.49 percent of the MTA’s signatures invalid. Some have alleged that a few signers were from outside the district, or even dead. No matter how oppressive the blocking efforts, or how desperate the struggle for voters, that’s simply sloppy signature-gathering. The Taxpayers have admirable goals, but messy work like theirs’ damages the credibility of small-government petitioners across the country.
- Drolet et al. are now trying to get Land or the Michigan Supreme Court to validate some of the signatures. He says certain decisions allow organizations like his to use out-of-state petition gatherers. Michigan and other states owe it to their citizens to have clearly established laws that won’t give rise to so much legal wrangling.
- This site and others show evidence of blockers’ egregious violations during the Michigan campaign. The petitioners failed, but they shouldn’t have worry about opponents screaming and lying to obstruct their efforts.
When I was a debater, I learned quickly that whichever team making a proposal is at a distinct disadvantage, because they face both the attacks of their opponents, and the reluctant-to-change status quo. Blockers aren’t going to stop, so our efforts have to be tight and they have to be valid.
June 19, 2008 @ 1:50 pm
I would like to discuss the “sloppy petition-gathering” charge; the 49.9% rejected signatures doesn’t tell the whole story.
About 1,000 of those signatures were gathered by circulators who didn’t live in the district and/or were registered voters, as required by Michigan law.
Michgan law is unconstitutional, as the US Supreme Court ruled in Buckley.
Yes, I do concede that, perhaps, since Michigan law is so specific; since the stakes were so high in this contest (recalling a sitting Speaker of the House, nonetheless); and since such a violation of Michiganians civil rights is an issue left to the courts and not the petition organizers, the prudent thing would have been to have a very tight vetting process for circulators.
But that’s not the entire story, either.
To further complicate matters, one of those circulators had a home address in the district, his driver’s license showed he lived in the district, but because he lived on the border of the district, he actually voted in a different district. Hence, his signatures were disqualified. Granted, perhaps you could argue that the recall organizers could have also insisted on seeing a voter registration card in addition to drivers license. But really?
Hindsight is always 20-20. And although the recall initiative will not get on the August ballot, the issue of holding our elected officials accountable for the egregious tax burden they’ve placed on a state that has been in economic depression for several years will still be front and center. I guarantee it.
October 15, 2008 @ 5:13 am
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