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.