Denied. At least for now.

Michi­gan is a divided state. Of course it is; there are two penin­su­lae. But it seems that the state Board of Can­vassers is sim­i­larly divided, with a party-​​line 2–2 vote on the valid­ity of peti­tions for a Novem­ber bal­lot mea­sure to repeal Pub­lic Act 4, the state’s emer­gency man­agers law.

We dis­cussed the under­ly­ing bat­tle a cou­ple of weeks ago. The Repub­li­cans’ com­plaint regard­ing the peti­tions con­cerns the size of the font in the heading.

While Repub­li­can Jeff Tim­mer says that they are “tied by the let­ter of the law”, stare deci­sis in Michi­gan says oth­er­wise. In par­tic­u­lar, wig­gle room has been per­mit­ted if there were enough sig­na­tures to over­ride the rel­a­tive harm of point sizes below the legal minimum.

Because of this, Sec­re­tary of State Ruth John­son said, “We antic­i­pate that the issue will go to the next higher court with the Michi­gan Court of Appeal and pos­si­bly on to the Michi­gan Supreme Court.” It’s unclear whether the courts will make a final deter­mi­na­tion in time for the Novem­ber ballot.

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