Panel Approves Technical Merit of Petition
The Board of State Canvassers has cleared the first hurdle for one dauntless petitioner. A retired state of Michigan employee is hoping to start a petition drive to eliminate the state Senate, end term limits for legislators, ban collective bargaining for state workers and make Michigan a right-to-work state.
WWJ Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick reports Steve Harry of Lansing has no money and no organization as he starts working on four possible ballot proposals through an effort he calls the Committee to Transform Michigan. The forms of the petitions he plans to circulate are scheduled to be reviewed Friday by the Board of State Canvassers.
Ken Silfven, Acting Communications Director for the Michigan Department of State, told WWJ that the board of State Canvassers did give a technical approval of the petitions. "The petition meets the state standard, it's good to go." Although, Silfven stressed, "this is not an approval on the merit of the content, the board never acts on language or makes judgements."
Now that Harry has technical approval from the board, the next step is to collect more than 300,000 valid voter signatures in order to put the proposals on the 2012 ballot.
Some similar efforts have failed to gain much traction in the past. And Michigan voters in November rejected a proposal automatically put on the ballot that would have authorized a rewrite of the state constitution.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
