Above: Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel (l), Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (cen.) and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (r) doing the “Charlie’s Angels” pose at the 2022 Michigan Democratic Party Nominating Convention Aug. 21. Photo: Twitter.
If only Arizona’s Supreme Court were like Michigan’s Supreme Court (the difference is that Michigan has democracy defending Democrats on the court, Arizona has a Ducey-packed court of right-wing ideologues.) And if only Arizona had elected leaders like Michigan’s defenders of democracy. You have the opportunity to make this happen in November. Don’t blow it.
Michigan Live reports a victory for the citizens of Michigan and for democracy. Voting rights amendment will be on ballot, Michigan Supreme Court rules:
Michiganders will vote this fall on a significant expansion of voting rights and access after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a proposed constitutional amendment belongs on the ballot.
Justices ruled, 5-2, ordering the Board of State Canvassers to place Promote the Vote 2022 on the November ballot, where voters will see it as Proposal 2.
Canvassers deadlocked, 2-2, last week on approving PTV’s signatures and placing it on the ballot because the board’s two Republicans sided with a wording-related challenge from opposition group Defend Your Vote.
That group argued PTV’s petition language did not list everything in the constitution it would change or cancel – or in legal terms, “alter and abrogate.” Democratic board members and PTV argued that the board’s role in that vote was only toward approving signatures, not rehashing language that was approved months ago.
The state Supreme Court agreed, as the majority opinion cited a 2012 case, Stand Up for Democracy v. Secretary of State, which held canvassers are “limited to determining the sufficiency of a petition’s form and content and whether there are sufficient signatures to warrant certification.”
Republican Justice Elizabeth Clement joined the court’s four Democrats in reversing canvassers’ decision.
The court also concluded that PTV “would not abrogate any of the constitutional provisions identified by the challenger. The Board thus has a clear legal duty to certify the petition.”
PTV piggybacks off a 2018 ballot measure in which Michiganders approved excuse-free absentee voting.
Among PTV’s provisions are nine days of early in-person voting; requiring state-funded absentee ballot drop boxes and postage for ballots and applications; and requiring military and overseas ballots be counted if postmarked by Election Day.
The constitutional amendment would also bar harassing conduct while voting; allow donations to fund election operations if publicly disclosed; and allow voters to fill out a single absentee ballot application to vote in all future elections.
“We applaud the Michigan Supreme Court for seeing through the baseless and ridiculous claims of our opposition and holding that the voters of Michigan should have the opportunity to make their voices heard on this important issue,” said PTV president Khalilah Spencer in a statement.
“This important ballot initiative will help ensure that every Michigan voter’s voice is heard and that every vote is counted in every election, no matter where you live, what you look like or what political party or candidate you support.”
In another victory for democracy over GQP tyranny, the Michign Supreme Court ordered the abortion rights initiative placed on the ballot. Michigan Supreme Court approves abortion proposal for November ballot:
Michiganders will vote on the right to abortion this fall, as the state Supreme Court ruled, 5-2, on Thursday that a ballot initiative indeed qualifies for the November election.
Reproductive Freedom for All, which voters will see as Proposal 3, would amend Michigan’s constitution to guarantee “a fundamental right to reproductive freedom” that includes abortion care, contraception, infertility care and sterilization.
Although a state court ruled Wednesday that Michigan’s 1931 law banning abortion is unconstitutional, the legislature could pass a new ban. Voting Prop 3 into the state constitution, however, would supersede a future ban.
The Michigan Supreme Court’s ruling orders the Board of State Canvassers to place Prop 3 on the ballot. The bipartisan board deadlocked, 2-2, across party lines last week over an issue about a letter spacing mistake.
But despite the issue, the full text of the amendment remains in 8-point type as required by law, justices noted in their opinion.
“(R)egardless of the existence or extent of the spacing, all of the words remain and they remain in the same order, and it is not disputed that they are printed in 8-point type,” the court decided. “In this case, the meaning of the words has not changed by the alleged insufficient spacing between them.”
Republican Justice Elizabeth Clement joined the court’s four Democrats in upholding the proposal.
When RFFA’s petition language was approved by canvassers in March, it was ordered to remove a word. In doing so, the spacing of some words changed. This created “gobbledygook” phrases where spaces are too small to see without copying words over to a new document, opposition group Citizens to Support MI Women and Children argued to the court, including “ORALLEGEDPREGNANCYOUTCOMES.”
But justices sided with RFFA and others who argued the Board of State Canvassers went beyond its power when its denial had nothing to do with the validity of signatures or the form of the petition.
“The Board’s duty with respect to petitions is ‘limited to determining the sufficiency of a petition’s form and content and whether there are sufficient signatures to warrant certification,’” the court’s decision said, citing a 2012 decision in Stand Up for Democracy v. Secretary of State.
“The challengers have not produced a single signer who claims to have been confused by the limited-spacing sections in the full text portion of the proposal,” wrote Chief Justice Bridget McCormack, a Democrat, in her concurring opinion. “Yet two [GQP] members of the Board of State Canvassers … would disenfranchise millions of Michiganders” because of a “technicality.”
“What a sad marker of the times,” McCormack said.
Note: Just like the Gov. Ducey-packed Republican Arizona Supreme Court disenfranchised millions of Arizona voters from voting on the Arizonans for Free and Fair Elections initiative because of technicalities, impediments imposed by our extremist GQP state legislature to nullify your constitutional right to citizens initiatives.“What a sad marker of the times,” indeed.
Supporters who submitted briefs to the court include Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and seven county prosecutors that represent 43% of Michiganders.
“The People’s right to amend their Constitution cannot be discarded by a pair of unelected officials playing fast and loose with their statutory charge,” Nessel wrote to the court.
Anti-abortion groups have said RFFA is too broad for the state constitution, as rights to abortion, sterilization and other procedures are not given an age limit. The amendment would also cancel or modify dozens of existing laws and regulations, opponents have said.
They also argue it would mean abortions could happen up until birth [B.S.], but the proposal allows lawmakers to regulate abortion “after fetal viability” [24 weeks], except when to “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.”
Fetal viability is defined in the amendment as when an attending health care professional sees “a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus” without “extraordinary medical measures.”
Michiganders, overwhelmingly support [the ballot measure], according to an August poll by Lansing-based independent pollster EPIC-MRA. It found 67% of likely November voters plan to vote for it, compared to 24% against and 9% undecided.
Canvassers meet Friday at 10 a.m. at the Binsfeld Office Building in downtown Lansing to finalize the November ballot.
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