© 2024 WNMU-FM
Upper Great Lakes News, Music, and Arts & Culture
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Elections board starts work on new petition rules

LANSING, MI (MPRN)--   A state elections board began working Monday on new rules for how petition signatures are collected for citizen initiatives and ballot questions. 

That’s a response to a formal opinion from state Attorney General Dana Nessel. She says a law adopted last year that makes it more difficult for petition drives to succeed is unconstitutional. Republicans have filed a legal challenge to the opinion.

Democrat Jeannette Bradshaw chairs the Michigan Board of State Canvassers. She says the board has to keep working while waiting to see what the courts decide.

If the court rules it, then obviously we’re going to seek clarification, too. But we’re not going to know that answer until we get any kind of court ruling,” she says.

Bradshaw says that might present a hardship for petition campaigns that are ramping up to collect signatures during the warmer months of the year. There could be one or more drives in the field soon to try and enact stricter abortion laws.