LANSING, Mich. (WOWO) — A proposed Michigan constitutional amendment requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote will not appear on the November 3 ballot after the Michigan Supreme Court rejected an effort to force the measure onto the ballot. The ruling Thursday came shortly after U.S. Sup reme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh also declined to grant an emergency request from the proposal’s supporters. Kavanaugh’s decision was issued without a written explanation. The Michigan Supreme Court’s decision effectively ends the proposal’s legal effort to reach voters this fall, according to Michigan Public and Bridge Michigan. The measure was backed by Americans for Citizen Voting-Michigan, which submitted 709,841 petition signatures in March. The campaign needed 446,198 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. The proposed constitutional amendment would require people registering to vote in Michigan to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship. It also would establish additional photo-identification requirements for voters. The measure included criminal penalties for violations, including the possibility of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000. The ballot fight centered on whether enough of the submitted petition signatures were valid. Rather than manually reviewing every signature, the Michigan Bureau of Elections uses a random sample of 1,000 signatures when evaluating large petition drives. For this proposal, at least 629 of those sampled signatures needed to be considered valid. The Michigan Board of State Canvassers spent nearly seven hours reviewing the petition on August 24 before deadlocking 2-2 on whether to certify the proposal. The board initially had counted 692 valid signatures in its sample. After challenges to signatures and debate over affidavits submitted to establish the validity of previously rejected signatures, that number fell to 626 by the board’s deadline. That left the proposal three signatures short of the required threshold. The campaign then turned to the courts, arguing that election officials had improperly rejected or failed to consider affidavits that could have rehabilitated additional signatures. Americans for Citizen Voting-Michigan first pursued relief in the Michigan Supreme Court before taking its argument to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court became involved when Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who handles emergency matters arising from the federal appeals circuit that includes Michigan, was asked to order state officials to place the measure on the November ballot. Kavanaugh requested a response from Michigan officials before rejecting the emergency application Thursday. The decision did not include a written opinion. The state had argued that granting the requested relief would effectively give the petition campaign everything it was seeking before the underlying legal questions had been fully reviewed. With the federal emergency request denied, the Michigan Supreme Court then rejected the campaign’s request for mandamus relief. Mandamus is an extraordinary court remedy generally used to require a government official to carry out a legal duty. The Michigan justices determined that the Board of State Canvassers had exercised discretion when it considered the disputed affidavits, making mandamus inappropriate. Justice Elizabeth Welch wrote that the board exercised discretion when it accepted 14 affidavits intended to rehabilitate rejected signatures. Welch said state law does not require the board to accept affidavits for that purpose, nor does it prescribe a mandatory procedure for reviewing them if the board decides to consider them. The result left Americans for Citizen Voting-Michigan three valid signatures short of the constitutional threshold needed for the proposal to advance. Justice Noah Hood, while joining the court’s decision, raised concerns about Michigan’s broader system for reviewing ballot petitions. Hood pointed to what he called a “structural tension in the current statutory scheme,” noting that the deadline for the Board of State Canvassers to act comes at roughly the same time ballots must be prepared and printed. That creates a narrow window for petition campaigns to challenge decisions and for courts to consider those challenges. Hood wrote that the Bureau of Elections can have months to review petitions, while those seeking to challenge an election decision may have only days to decide whether to go to court. Judges then have even less time to resolve those cases before election deadlines arrive. He said the courts have handled those pressures appropriately but suggested the Legislature consider changing the law. “Our courts have managed these pressures with integrity, but the statutory scheme requires amendment,” Hood wrote. The citizenship proposal would have made significant changes to Michigan’s voter registration and identification requirements. Under the proposal, voters would have been required to provide documentary evidence of U.S. citizenship when registering. The measure also would have required photo identification either at the polls or within six days after an election for a ballot to be counted. Supporters said the changes were necessary to ensure that only eligible citizens participate in Michigan elections The post Michigan Supreme Court Rejects Effort to Put Proof-of-Citizenship Voting Proposal on November Ballot appeared first on WOWO News/Talk 92.3 FM and 1190 AM. ...read more read less