MI Right to Vote Citizen Initiative Reform will ensure that voters are no longer cut out of the process.
Barb Byrum, Ingham County Clerk, in her recent piece in EclectaBlog writes,
“Gathering petition signatures is an act as old as democracy itself. It is direct and easy to understand: Sign the petition to show your support. Sign the petition and the person or issue will be placed on the ballot for everyone to decide on.”
Michigan is one of 16 states that allow constitutional amendments ballot initiatives.
MI Right to Vote is working to put two constitutional amendments on the Michigan Ballot for 2022: The Right to Vote and Citizens Initiative Reform. We will need to collect 425,058 valid signatures from registered Michigan voters.
But not all proposals are destine for the Michigan ballot.
People who sign, sign with the expectation they are signing to help get us on the ballot by allowing us to meet the 425,058 valid signature requirement.
Our proposal will make sure that every proposal that meets the valid signature requires will go to the vote of the people.
Byrum writes:
“It is reasonable for voters to assume that signing petitions is not a final act. In most cases, they could expect that a candidate would find their way onto the ballot during an election or that a proposal would be voted on at a later time.
However, this is not always the case and is why I feel it necessary to issue this Public Service Announcement.
The new in-vogue petition to circulate is for “Citizen-Initiated Legislation” and they are handled differently than how you might expect from a traditional ballot proposal petition. The biggest difference is that Citizen-Initiated Legislation petitions may never come before the voters of Michigan. If enough valid signatures are collected and the Legislature approves of the new law, it becomes State Law. It bypasses the Governor, who would not be given the opportunity to veto the bill.”
The Loophole
Groups like Secure MI Vote can gather signatures of only 8% of the number of who voted in the previous gubernatorial election, or 340,047 (4,2% of the 8,081,943 of Michigan registered voters.) and then have the legislature take up and pass their proposal.
This loophole allows laws to bypass the Governor’s desk and a possible veto, and will never get on the ballot for a vote of the people.
The MI Right to Vote constitutional amendment will require all ballot proposals that meet the required valid signatures to go on the ballot
Barb Byrum, Ingham County Clerk, in her recent piece in EclectaBlog writes:
“You might be asking yourself why these are being circulated right now. The answer is surprisingly simple: The Republicans control the State Legislature, but not the Governor’s Office. They know, and have seen, that Governor Whitmer will veto hyper-partisan legislation that they want to see enacted into law. They know that the issues are not popular enough, and would be defeated if put to a vote of the entire state. So they have found a way to exploit a loophole in State Law and get their hardcore supporters and those who don’t know the difference between a Ballot Initiative and Citizen-Initiated Legislation to assist.
“The Republican Party is trying to get these extreme measures passed urgently because they know that their days in control of the State Legislature are numbered. In the case of Secure MI Vote, one of the many petitions that circulators are pushing: The bills have already been vetoed by the Governor, and now the GOP is trying to get it done by cutting her and the Voters of Michigan out of the process.”
MI Right to Vote with our Citizen Initiative Reform will “Cut Voters BACK” into the process by making sure all initiatives will have to go on the ballot for a vote by Michigan voters.
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