Unlock Michigan Ballot Petition Given The Green Light By Michigan Bureau of Elections

The group that goes by the name Keep Michigan Safe and their lawyer, Mark Brewer, former Chair of Michigan’s Democratic Party and now a practicing political lawyer is not going to be happy about this.  The Detroit News is reporting that Michigan’s Bureau of Elections has recommended the certification of Unlock Michigan’s petition after reviewing a subset of their signatures.

What was their proposal?  Here it is right from the Unlock Michigan website:

“An initiation of legislation to repeal the Emergency Powers of Governor Act, 1945 PA 302, MCL 10.31 to 10.33, entitled “An act authorizing the governor to proclaim a state of emergency, and to prescribe the powers and duties of the governor with respect thereto; and to prescribe penalties.”

It does one thing: it repeals the law that allows a Michigan Governor to govern by decree, without end, and without accountability. With the repeal of this 1945 law that has long outlived its usefulness, Governor Whitmer and all future governors will retain important powers to respond in case of legitimate emergencies, but they’ll have to work with the legislature to respond to long-term problems.”

The Michigan Bureau of Elections, as they typically do, reviewed a small sample of 506 signatures out of the 538,345 that were turned into the state government.  Of those 506 signatures, they determined that 434 or 86% were considered valid.  Applying that 86% validity rate against the total 538,345 signatures submitted by Unlock Michigan translates to 460,358 valid signatures. That is 120,311 more signatures than the 340,047 needed for the Unlock Michigan ballot proposal to obtain certification.

That is what will upset Mark Brewer and the law firm he works for who is being paid a lot of money to tie up the democratic process in the courts. Or perhaps Mark and his lawyer buddies are happy about having enough signatures validated so he and his firm can make even more money as they continue to fight this in the courts.

Keep Michigan Safe, complained that the Michigan Bureau of Election said the staff report ignored "90% of our many procedural and substantive challenges...We’re disappointed, but we will make our case to the Board of Canvassers and the courts to stop this ill-conceived and irresponsible petition drive"

It is not over yet, this now moves to the Board of Canvassers who will consider the bureau’s recommendation at their meeting Thursday.  That Board of Canvassers is comprised of two Republicans and two Democrats.  If they accept the recommendation from the Michigan Bureau of Elections they will officially certify the petition.  Once that happens the proposed repeal of the 1945 Emergency Powers of the Governor Act will move to the Legislature, which all indications are that they will adopt and enact the repeal which would avoid a Governor Whitmer veto.

There still is a lawsuit that Keep Michigan Safe filed in Michigan’s Court of Claims last week seeking to stop Michigan’s Bureau of Elections from reviewing the turned-in signatures.

About that lawsuit yesterday the Unlock Michigan spokesman Fred Wszolek said:

"We are hopeful that the frivolous lawsuits and complaints filed can be quickly dispensed with, so the voice of the people can be heard on this…And even more importantly, we hope Gov. Whitmer will hear these voices too, end her practice of governing by decree and work with the Legislature going forward."

If we can get that law repealed that is a win for every single freedom-loving Michigander.  No Governor should have unlimited power to wield as long as they see fit.  The Governor would still have 28 days in which to declare an emergency and address that emergency as they sit fit.  Once those 28 days are up they would be forced to work with the people’s representatives in the state House and Senate to continue to address that emergency.

Power belongs in the millions of Michigan resident's hands not the 2 hands of any Governor.

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