It’s up to the Michigan Court of Appeals now to determine whether voters will get to approve or reject the state’s emergency manager law. The court held an hour-long hearing on the question today.
The referendum drive wants the court to order the question onto the November ballot. That’s after a state elections panel deadlocked along party lines, effectively blocking the referendum. The board’s two Republicans said the print size on the petition was too small.
Attorney Herb Sanders says if the court lets that decision stand, it would send a grim message to more than 200,000 people who signed the petitions.
“We don’t have a government for the people. We don’t have a government for the people, we don’t have a government by the people, rather we have a governing dictatorship – and that’s what we want to avoid,” he says.
Sanders says the ballot drive complied with the rules, but, regardless, a technicality should not keep voters from deciding the issue.
Opponents of the referendum say if the rules were not followed to the letter, the question should not be allowed on the ballot.
“This is not just like horseshoes where you get to get, like, close. It’s a very, very specific part of the procedure and just like the Legislature operates under specific doctrines, so should this process, and that’s what the constitution demands,” says Attorney John Pirich.
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