Not to be outdone by the likes of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Texas, the state of Michigan has presented its case for the worst state the U.S. has to offer. Beyond the fact that the population of Flint will be dealing with the effects of lead poisoning for decades, as well as the likelihood that the city of Detroit will soon be little more than a 143 square mile post-apocalyptic-themed paintball field, the state’s stubborn Republican government is now looking to keep citizen issues off the state’s election ballots by changing the laws that allow for them in the first place.
Michigan Republicans are now that kid everyone hates who changes the rules in the middle of a game to suit their interests. This is of chief concern to grassroots groups in the Great Lakes State working tirelessly to put anti-fracking and pro-marijuana initiatives on the 2016 ballot. From ThinkProgress:
“Both the pro-marijuana and anti-fracking groups in Michigan say they are relatively close to achieving the 252,523 valid signatures they need to get their respective issues on the state’s ballot in 2016.
They have one problem, though: Some of their signatures are too old. Michigan election law states that all signatures for citizen-led ballot initiatives need to be collected over a period of only 180 days. The law also states that signatures can still be counted if they’re older than 180 days, but only if the groups verify them. And the verification process is onerous — the groups have to get individual physical affidavits from each person who signed, stating that they were registered to vote at the time.”
That’s unreal, which prompted attorney Jeff Hanks to ask the state’s Board of Elections to allow signatures gathered more than 180 days ago be run through the Qualified Voter File, an electronic database that can verify the petition signatures to the registered voters who signed. The state’s Constitution allows for the Qualified Voter File to be used for this purpose, which has Michigan Republicans worried, apparently, that their voters will be able to smoke joints while laughing at the fracking companies they forced to leave.
The prospect of such a liberal hellscape is probably what prompted state Sen. David Robertson, R-District 14, to propose a bill that would change Michigan election laws to the extent that these ballot initiatives are dead in the water. Robertson’s proposal would void any petition signature older than 180 days, no matter what.
Robertson’s bill — supported by the American Petroleum Institute, the Michigan Oil and Gas Association, and the Michigan Chamber of Commerce — passed through the Michigan Senate with a 70 percent supermajority and is expected to pass through the Michigan House. It’s also safe to assume that Republican Gov. Rick Snyder would sign the bill into law, since it’s the next step on his path to becoming the country’s top supervillain.
Needless to say, pro-marijuana and anti-fracking advocates in Michigan are not happy about their legislature’s attempts to stitch their mouths shut. Hanks has even spoken about how the ramifications of the bill could extend beyond merely stopping these ballot initiatives and could affect the whole of citizen lawmaking in Michigan.
Hanks has also said if the bill becomes another one of Michigan’s asinine laws, he’ll sue the government.
Featured image by MilhouseGOP, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.
[H/T ThinkProgress]
