Unlock Michigan Petition Drive Faces Roadblock
Hundreds, if not thousands of Calhoun and Kalamazoo county residents signed petitions last fall promoted by the group Unlock Michigan. The plan is to eliminate the 1945 Emergency Powers of the Governor Act. That’s what Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer used as a basis for her initial virus control lockdowns. But extending the orders unilaterally got her in trouble with the State Supreme Court. Now she’s issuing orders through state departments to keep control - continuing to bypass the legislature.
The former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party is taking position front and center on behalf of an activist group known as Keep Michigan Safe. Mark Brewer is now leading the legal effort to disqualify the Unlock Michigan petition drive. The group is filing a challenge to the petition drive in the closing moments of the window of opportunity for that kind of action.
The challenge creates a delay in the petition drive moving forward. Initially, the State Board of Canvassers may take action based on the challenge. But the issue may still end up in court no matter what the Board decides to do.
Keep Michigan Safe is claiming there’s a long list of problems with the Unlock Michigan drive. It claims there’s everything from an ongoing criminal investigation, to conflicts of interest directly involving at least one man on the Board of Canvassers. It even says the petition drive moved forward in spite of what it says are, “...multiple clear violations of Michigan Election law”.
Attorney Brewer claims the Board of Canvassers is in a tough spot. He says, “The Board of Canvassers must disqualify every signature collected illegally and launch its own investigation of Unlock Michigan given multiple media reports on its illegal tactics and unsavory characters employed by this irresponsible effort.”
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