Marc Elias documents the atrocities
“Talk about a tell,” @chrislhayes said last night about Republicans keeping an citizen-led abortion rights initiative off the ballot in Michigan.
Democracy Docket’s newsletter this morning takes up that decision while confirming the threat to voting President Biden warned of last night in Philadelphia.
Word spacing?
Two Pro-Voting Ballot Measures Kicked off the Ballot
The Arizona Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a conservative organization and disqualified a pro-voting ballot initiative. The ballot measure aimed to safeguard mail-in voting, expand early voting, improve voter registration, prevent the state Legislature from overturning presidential election results and more. Although nearly half a million Arizonians signed the petition to get the measure on the ballot this fall, the plaintiffs alleged that there were legal deficiencies associated with a large number of signatures that should disqualify the ballot initiative altogether. The measure will unfortunately not appear on the November ballot.
In Michigan, a pro-voting measure was also rejected this week, but with a more problematic backstory. Organizers for Promote the Vote had gathered enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, but the Michigan Board of State Canvassers did not advance the measure to the November ballot. The group pushing a rival ballot measure — which aimed to enact a strict voter ID requirement but failed to gather sufficient signatures — challenged the way Promote the Vote organizers circulated petition forms. In light of this challenge, the two Republican members on the board voted against advancing the pro-voting measure to the ballot while the two Democratic members voted for advancing it. The deadlock typically means Michigan voters will not see the measure come November, but Promote the Vote has already challenged the decision in the Michigan Supreme Court, arguing that the canvassing board violated the group’s right to due process.
- There’s a distinction between the legitimate removal of a ballot measure (often for issues like insufficient or fraudulent signatures, misleading descriptions or unauthorized spending requirements if passed) and what the Michigan Board of State Canvassers did here. In Michigan, the board approved the Promote the Vote initiative before petitioners began circulating the language and no legal challenges were raised then. The state’s election bureau also declined to make a legal recommendation regarding the last-minute challenge, but the Republican board members still took matters into their own hands.
- In the same fell swoop, the GOP members of the board prevented a ballot measure to codify the right to abortion from making the ballot. The reproductive freedom group behind the measure had collected a record number of signatures, but the board members disqualified the measure for issues with “word spacing,” a made-up problem. Direct democracy belongs to the people, not to the whims of GOP official
- Heads up: This two-two partisan board will ultimately take a central role in certifying statewide post-election results. We narrowly avoided disaster in 2020 when one of the Republicans refused to certify Biden’s win in the state. (The Michigan GOP has since replaced both GOP members with canvassers of their choice.)
It’s Labor Day weekend. Volunteer for a campaign, willya?
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Request a copy of For The Win, 4th Edition, my free, countywide get-out-the-vote planning guide for county committees at ForTheWin.us.