Fair and Equal asks Supreme Court to reconsider petition signature rules

A group trying to put a proposal before voters banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity has filed suit with the Michigan Supreme Court to reevaluate the signature qualification rules for a ballot initiative. 

In a filing Wednesday, Fair and Equal Michigan asked the Michigan Supreme Court  to review the state Bureau of Elections and Board of State Canvassers process that led to the group's disqualification from the ballot. 

The Board of State Canvassers, at the recommendation of the Bureau of Elections, rejected the certification of Fair and Equal Michigan's petition because it fell short of the required number of signatures to make the ballot. 

But Fair and Equal has maintained the Bureau of Elections made mistakes while analyzing the signatures, including the disqualification of thousands of digital signatures. 

In a Thursday statement, Fair and Equal said its filing was "groundbreaking" and based on "serious concerns far beyond our fight for equal rights."

"The outcome of Fair and Equal Michigan's appeal to the Supreme Court may fundamentally impact how ballot campaigns operate in the state moving forward," said Trevor Thomas, co-chair for Fair and Equal Michigan. "This decision to file is not something we take lightly and are doing so with the deepest respect and love for our Constitution and our great state."

Opposing ballot committee Citizens for Equality Fairness and Justice said elections officials "got it right" when they denied certification based on inadequate signatures. 

"They got a fair and equal review by the Bureau of Elections, but fell well short," said Patrick Meyers, a spokesman for the group. "It doesn't matter whether the sample size is 500 or 4,000, it won't change the fact that they simply didn't collect enough valid signatures to qualify their misleading and poorly drafted initiative."

The group asks the high court to determine that any signature review rules go through the regular rule-making process. Until that process is complete, the justices should require the bureau to select a new sample of 4,000 signatures to examine in the strict light of existing law and "correct its prior arbitrary treatment," Fair and Equal argued. 

The bureau has avoided promulgating rules through the Administrative Procedures Act regarding how petition signatures are sampled and deemed sufficient, yet the Board of State Canvassers relies in part of the bureau's review process and recommendation, Fair and Equal said in its petition. 

"Neither the board nor the bureau are empowered to create new provisions of the Michigan Election Law or narrowly construe Michigan law in a manner that hinders rather than facilitates the exercise of constitutional initiative rights," the group said in its filing. 

Michigan's electronic transactions law allows documents to be signed electronically, a statute that Fair and Equal suggested protects the nearly 20,000 signers who signed electronically. 

"Flatly refusing to even consider these signatures without any statutory basis is an arbitrary abuse of administrative discretion by the bureau, which in turn prevents the Board from performing its statutory duty to accurately canvass the number of signatures on petitions of qualified and registered electors submitted by Fair and Equal," the filing said. 

Lawmakers have long debated reform of the Elliot Larsen Civil Rights Act in Michigan, but Republicans have repeatedly called for changes that include protections for religious beliefs. If the Legislature refused to sign off on the Fair and Equal Michigan initiative, it would go before voters in 2022.

Fair and Equal Michigan needed to collect 340,047 valid petition signatures to advance its initiative to lawmakers. It submitted 468,830 signatures.

But the Bureau of Elections declined to count more than 18,000 electronic signatures on the premise that the state doesn't have a process for accepting electronic signatures.

After disqualifying the 18,000 electronic signatures, the Michigan Bureau of Elections examined a sample of 502 signatures and found the number of valid signatures fell short of the 398 need to merit certification. More than 90 signatures were rejected because the signer was not registered to vote or the jurisdiction written by the signer didn't align with the jurisdiction where the voter was registered.

eleblanc@detroitnews.com