Conservative Group's Petition Certification Delayed

LANSING, MI — The Michigan Board of State Canvassers was scheduled to meet Wednesday morning where they were expected to certify a petition amending a 1945 law cited by state health officials when they issued public health orders during the pandemic.

But that meeting, scheduled for 9 a.m. Wednesday in Lansing, was canceled after an organization called for a stay of the only issue on the meeting agenda was

"If you're one of the Democratic canvassers who voted no, you're probably not going to change," Norm Shinkle, one of the board's two Republican members, said, according to The Detroit News. "Why waste taxpayers' money and have everybody show up if nothing's going to change?"

The group, Keep Michigan Safe, filed a motion for a rehearing with the Michigan Supreme Court following the court’s earlier decision requiring the Michigan Board of State Canvassers to certify signatures and petitions gathered by Unlock Michigan requesting the repeal of the law.

The group said in an email that it is urging the board to delay certifying the petitions until the Michigan Supreme Court rules on the motion.

Group attorneys Mark Brewer and Chris Trebilcock said the court’s decision “strips the Board of its investigatory powers specifically granted by the Legislature.”

The decision also “leaves the citizens of this State with no public body to serve as gatekeeper that has the authority to reject petitions based on illegal signature gathering," they said.

“With petition drives to restrict the right to vote and eviscerate the public health code’s pandemic powers anticipated in the coming days, now is not the time for this Court to summarily, without the benefit of oral argument and full briefing, free petition circulators, many of them paid and from out of state, from the rules governing their conduct and leave them free to continue to engage in the illegal conduct found by the Michigan Attorney General. Yet that is precisely what the Decision did in just 338 words,” the attorneys said in their motion.

Unlock Michigan

The petition was launched by the conservative group Unlock Michigan, which has previously tried — and succeeded — at having laws used throughout the course of the pandemic repealed or revisited.

The group successfully gathered enough signatures to repeal a 75-year-old law used by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 to issue executive orders amid the coronavirus pandemic. The law was later ruled unconstitutional.

What The Group Aims to Do

When the original law cited by Whitmer was ruled unconstitutional, Whitmer was still able to issue public health orders through Michigan's health officials using an older law giving them the authority to issue such orders during a public health crisis.

But that law would be revised as well under a new measure, which would require the legislature to OK any extension on an order after 28 days. The Associated Press reported previously that local health officers looking to impose restrictions also would need the approval of their local governing body.

How We Got Here and What's Next

The Michigan Board of Canvassers was essentially told via court order to certify a prior Unlock Michigan initiative repealing the 1945 Emergency Powers of the Governor Act.

Once certified, that initiative is expected to be adopted by the Michigan Legislature as opposed to being approved by voters, The Detroit News reported previously.