This week in Michigan a huge blow has been dealt to
democracy, there is a particularly unpopular law in Michigan (which I will come
to later) that many people want overturned. It’s not the only US state with
laws that many people want to overturn, in Maine and Ohio voters rejected legislation that had been passed by
their Republican led State legislators, in Arizona the most powerful Republican
in the state was recalled from office due to his ‘papers please’ law. In
Wisconsin, Republican governor, Scott Walker, faces a recall election on the 5th
of June. To get a law overturned in American states you must provide a certain
amount of signatures (it varies state to state), if you have enough verified
signatures then the law gets put to a
public vote. In Michigan the process was followed, people opposed to the
legislation returned enough signatures to have the law put to a referendum (which
is 5% of the number of people who voted in the last election), they even had more,
40,000 extra signatures were handed to the correct authorities who confirmed
that the signatures were legitimate.
Despite this a challenge was brought by a group calling
themselves “Citizens for fiscal responsibility” claiming that correct process
had not been followed. So what horrifying, terrible thing had the petitioners
done that this recall must be stopped? The font size was apparently too small.
I’m not joking. This challenge was put to the Board of Canvassers who voted along party lines, the two Democrats voted no
to the challenge (and therefore yes to the recall) and the two Republicans
voted yes to the challenge (and therefore no to the recall). What is important
to note is the identity of one of the Republicans, Jeffrey Timmer, he is one of
three partners at a Republican consulting firm that helped to bring the font
size challenge to the petition. Clearly there is a conflict of interests here,
he is both the defendant and the jury, voting on something that he has helped
bring to the board of canvassers. It is a disgrace. Yet thankfully the petition
is not dead in the water and the challenge will be brought to the courts where
a final decision will be made.
The particular law that is up for recall is a very, very
radical law. It is called the Emergency Manager Law basically it takes away
local democracy in struggling towns and cities. The state of Michigan has the
right to take away power from local elected officials such as mayors or
councillors and give them to one person who has unilateral control over the municipality.
This is a horrible attack on democracy and it is a law that should never have
been passed. Many areas have already been taken over by emergency managers such
as Pontiac and Flint, these towns have substantial African-American populations
and have lost their voice in Michigan.
The USA has been a beacon of democracy for years, yet laws
like these threaten to undermine the very reason why America is great. This law
must be overturned.
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