Republican resigns from the (MI) Board of State Canvassers, gives Democrats the majority
Source: Detroit News
June 22, 2012 at 10:17 pm
Republican resigns from the Board of State Canvassers, gives Democrats the majority
By Karen Bouffard
Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Lansing Republican Jeffrey Timmer has resigned from the Board of State Canvassers, giving Democrats the majority on the four-member board.
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Board members, two Republicans and two Democrats, serve four-year terms. They are appointed by the governor. Among the board's duties are certifying statewide elections, conducting election recounts and approving petitions for candidates and ballot proposals.
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Timmer, one of two Republicans on the board, was involved in a heated meeting in April where the Board of State Canvassers denied an effort by supporters of a proposal to repeal Public Act 4, the emergency manager law, to put the question on the November general election ballot.
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The group Stand Up for Democracy gathered 203,238 signatures, roughly 40,000 more than needed to get a repeal question on the ballot. But the petitions were challenged by Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, which said the type size in the petition headline was too small. Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility shares an address with the Sterling Corporation consulting group in Lansing. Timmer, a former Michigan Republican Party executive director, is a partner in Sterling.
Read more: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120622/POLITICS02/206220458#ixzz1yaITzCYO
Good news!
The printers' fonts in Michigan are all the right height.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)Carla in Sequim
(228 posts)that it is a ploy to keep progressive petitions off the ballot.
What do you think?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/22/1102334/-BREAKING-Mich-Elections-Board-cancels-next-meeting-prevent-decision-on-two-progressive-referendums
The reasoning behind these dramatic moves is clear: to prevent the validation of the petitions to repeal Public Act 4 -- the Emergency Manager Law -- and the "Protect Our Jobs" petitions to place collective bargaining protections in the state constitution. A conservative group is asking our Republican Secretary of State to throw out the nearly 700,000 petition signatures on that referendum to subvert democracy in that way.
Moosepoop
(1,921 posts)that Shinkle plans to resign as well, which would leave the 4-person board without a quorum and therefore unable to certify/validate any referendums or petitions.
That presumption has been denied by Shinkle, as quoted in the article linked in the OP.
"I'm happy I just got appointed a year ago January," Shinkle said Friday.