Republican hypocrisy is on display with Board of Canvassers vote

The two activist Republican members of the State Board of Canvassers refused to vote to certify the petitions of the Tea Party and place its candidates on the November ballot, resulting in a 2-2 deadlock and sending it to the courts.

The Tea Party had submitted 59,535 petition signatures, and based on sampling, the state found the group had 45,150 valid signatures, well above the 38,013 signatures required by law. The board of canvassers was only charged by law to verify the signatures, not how they were collected; and nothing else.

The fake, Astroturf teabaggers have always claimed this was a nonpartisan, grassroots effort that was neither Republican nor Democratic, and teabaggers are claiming this petition drive was an effort by Democrats to place the “tea party” on the ballot and drain off Republican votes.

That may or may not be true, and I could care less if they are on the ballot or not. However, it has proved that the teabagger farce is just the militant arm of the Republican Party that was bought and paid for by a pair of rightwing, Washington, D.C. think tanks and lobby firms, and not some nonpartisan, grassroots movement consisting of both Republicans and Democrats.

That’s what I and others have been saying since this farce began last year.
This vote by the two board members just displays the hypocrisy of the Republicans. A similar situation occurred in 2006 when fraud and deception were used to place Proposal 2 on the ballot that banned affirmative action programs based on race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin.

Despite widespread allegations of fraud, no other body or office in the state was allowed to look into the fraud committed, In fact, Republicans went out of his way to take powers away from the state Board of Canvassers because they were concerned with the fraud committed.

The Board off Canvassers also voted 2-2 in 2006 to deny putting it on the ballot, but after court challenges, both state and federal courts ruled the board of canvassers did not have the ability to deny ballot access based on how signatures were collected or fraud was used to collect them.

That ruling should have prevailed today.

HC petition language goes before board of Canvassers

The petition drive to deny 32 million Americans with no health care insurance from getting it and placing a constitutional amendment on the ballot to exempt Michigan from the historic health insurance reform law will face a severe test on Friday when the Michigan State Board of Canvassers meets to approve the petition language.

The problem is the teabaggers have been collecting signatures since a round of “kickoffs” were held late last month. Collecting the signatures of 380,126 registered voters before July 5 will be tough unless they have lots of insurance lobby money to spend, but all those signatures already collected could be invalid if the board dos not approve the petitions.

The fact that the petitions have not been approved before they were circulated has led many political pundits to believe the teabggers are simply building a Republican fundraising list.

The Board of Canvassers will meet at 10 a.m.. Friday April 16 in Room 426 of the Capitol in Lansing, and the meeting is open to the public.

Ballot questions could swamp November ballot

It appears the November ballot will be crowded with numerous ballot proposals that range from the popular to bordering on the ridiculous.

On Monday the Michigan State Board of Canvassers approved the language for form for six ballot proposals. That’s in addition to two that were approved in December and one that has already collected enough signatures to go on the ballot to bring the number to nine possible ballot proposals facing voters on Nov. 4.

The four-person partisan board approved the petitions for language only, and that allows the committees to begin collecting signatures. The language is good for 180 days, and petitioners have 90 days between when the first and last signatures are gathered to turn the petitions in to the Secretary of State.

Those petitions approved Monday include The Michigan Fair Tax Proposal Committee, which is proposing to replace three of the state's major taxes with a 9.75 percent sales tax. It would replace the state income tax, the new Michigan Business Tax and the state personal and real taxes on business property for school funding. The current sales tax is 6 percent. The ballot committee has planned a series of press conferences around the state on February 12 to pass out petitions, and they will be held in Pontiac, Flint, Lansing and Wyoming.

The Stem Cell Research Committee is pushing a proposal that would allow the use of stem cells from donated human embryos less than 14 days old. The embryos would have to have been created for "fertility treatment" and would otherwise have been discarded. The person seeking the fertility treatment would have to give written consent for the embryos to be used for research.

The Proportional Senate Committee would expand the Senate to 50 members at-large statewide instead of having Senators representing districts, with each having a vote proportional to the popular vote each received during the election.

The Personal Education Account Committee would require lawmakers to provide every child with "funding to support education on a per pupil basis which shall be controlled by the parent(s) or legal guardian(s) of each child respectively."

The Committee to Turn Michigan Around would require that legislative sessions end by May 31 each year, with no more than 100 regular session days. The governor, Senate Majority Leader and Speaker of the House could call a special session each year of no more than 15 days.

The People's Choice Tax Repeal had language approved Monday after being rejected in December. It would amend the state constitution to mandate an election if the Legislature creates a new tax, continues a tax, reduces a tax deduction or tax credit, or increases the effective rate or base of tax.

Those petitions approved in December include Madison Heights-based Health Care for Michigan that would amend the state constitution to require the Legislature to pass laws to ensure that "every Michigan resident has affordable and comprehensive health care coverage through a fair and cost-effective financing system."

Saginaw-based Part-Time Legislature Ballot Question Committee was also approved in December. It calls for a part-time Legislature; calls for cutting the salaries of lawmakers from $79,650 to $40,000 a year with a 1 percent deduction for each day absent; eliminates post-service pensions, retirement benefits, medical or life insurance; sets the legislative session from March to July; limits special sessions to just 20 days per year and requires the governor to submit a budget within the first three days of session.

The Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care has already collected enough signatures to place the question on the ballot to allow the medical marijuana.

Ballot question petitions get the OK

LANSING - The Michigan State Board of Canvassers gave approval Wednesday to a pair of initiative petitions seeking to place questions on the November 2008 General Election ballot but rejected a third.

The petitions presented to the four-person partisan board previewed a crowded General Election ballot next November, and the petitions submitted call for the Legislature to pass laws to “ensure that every Michigan resident has affordable health care coverage,” a petition calling for a part-time legislature and a petition requiring a state-wide vote on every tax increase. The board also set the deadline to challenge signatures already collected to allow the use of medical marijuana on the ballot.

Erane Washington-Kendrick, the Democrat chair of the board, stressed that approval does not mean endorsement of the proposal; only that the petitions meet requirements of font size and form, and approval is simply a courtesy that means the petitions cannot be challenged later for improper form once the resources have been expended to collect signatures.

Petitions drives enacting legislation have become a part of the political scene in Michigan, and the proper collection of signatures has come under recent scrutiny by both the board and Michigan courts. In an unrelated discussion about giving the University of Michigan access to old ballots for a research project, Republican board member Lyn Bankes said fraud was used to gather signatures for Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) that was placed on the November 2006 ballot, but the courts never ruled on that fraud in allowing Proposal 2 to go on the ballot.

“Some of these (petitions) are so silly there will be paid signature gathers,” she said. “I can see fraud involved in that, and we are not equipped to handle that.”

The board gave approval to the petition submitted by Madison Heights-based Health Care for Michigan that would amend the state constitution to require the legislature to pass laws to ensure that “every Michigan resident has affordable and comprehensive health care coverage through a fair and cost-effective financing system.” Constitutional Amendments require the valid signatures of registered voters equal to 10 percent of the total number of votes cast for all candidates for governor in the last election, and that comes out to the signatures of 380,126 registered voters that must be collected by July 7, 2008.

The petition submitted by the Saginaw-based Part-Time Legislature Ballot Question Committee was also approved. It calls for a part-time legislature, calls for cutting the salaries of lawmakers from $79,650 to $40,000 a year with a 1 percent deduction for each day absent; eliminates post service pensions, retirement benefits, medical or life insurance; set the legislative session from March to July; limits special sessions to just 20 days per year and requires the governor to submit a budget within the first three days of session.

The same group calling itself the People's Choice Tax Repeal Committee had its petition rejected. The board said the petition was too wordy and hard to understand. However, that does not mean the signature collecting cannot go forward, but the petitions would be easier to challenge and throw out later on.

“That’s a lot of verbage to read even if it meets the 8-point (font size) requirement,” said Shelly Edgerton, the Republican Vice-Chair of the board.

The petition would amend the state constitution to mandate an election if the legislature creates a new tax, continues a tax, reduces a tax deduction or tax credit or increased the effective rate or base of tax.

The board also set the deadline to challenge signatures already collected by Citizens for Compassionate Care to allow the use of medical marijuana. The deadline is 10 days after a sample of 500 names is drawn, and the board expects the drawing of the representative sample to take place about mid-January. The committee has already submitted about 475,000 petition signatures to put the issue on the ballot. Because it is an initiative and not a constitutional amendment, only 8 percent of the total number of votes cast for all candidates for governor must be collected, which comes out to 304,101 signatures of registered voters.