CANVASSERS AGAIN SPLIT ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PETITION
Members of the Board of State Canvassers now face contempt of court after failing Wednesday to certify the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative petition to the November 2006 ballot.
Jennifer Gratz, executive director of MCRI, said they would file shortly with the Court of Appeals for contempt sanctions against members of the board, though she did not know if it would be all or just those who blocked the certification, as well as to have the court certify the petitions.
The board again split on the petition, though this time with two yes votes. Democrat Paul Mitchell voted against certifying the petition and his fellow partisan Doyle O'Connor declined to register a vote on a motion Mr. O'Connor wrote to specify that the board was acting solely at the behest of the Court of Appeals. Republicans Kathy DeGrow and Lyn Bankes this time voted in favor of the certification. Ms. Bankes had abstained in July when the board first declined to certify the petition (See Gongwer Michigan Report, July 19, 2005). The meeting was designed to be pro forma, with the board following the Court of Appeals' order to certify. But the emotion of the issue combined with a large contingent of students from Detroit generated harsh words from both sides and, at one point, a protest that halted the meeting for more than an hour and a half.
Some 250 students and leaders brought by By Any Means Necessary, one of the groups opposing the petition, brought the meeting (and several other meetings occurring at the Lansing Center) to a halt when they began chanting "No Voter Fraud" and dancing in the aisles and on the chairs. The activity eventually led several dozen of the students to the front of the meeting room, toppling the witness table. Attorney George Washington, who represents BAMN, admitted to Lansing police that his group had brought the students, but denied any authority over them or ability to bring them to order. The board recessed after being shepherded by police to an adjoining meeting room, an event to which Mr. O'Connor later issued protest because only members of the press and leaders of MCRI were present in the room as the four board members discussed next steps. He argued during that meeting that the commission had essentially adjourned, but Ms. DeGrow said it could not have adjourned because the audience was too loud in the room for anything to be placed on the record.
After returning from lunch, the board was moved to another room in the building, this one with only one row of chairs for the audience. The lack of chairs brought another verbal altercation, with BAMN supporters protesting that only MCRI officials were provided with seats. MCRI then gave up its seats, leaving much of the front row empty as BAMN members then refused to take seats that had been occupied by their opponents. The much smaller contingent of BAMN members after the break still attempted to shut down the meeting as the board voted, with board members having to huddle with the court reporter to record their votes and abstentions. The vote was not known to the public until after the meeting had adjourned. The announcement of the vote was met with continued chants of "We won" as attendees were again shepherded out of the building by police.
The meeting was marked with heated exchanges between Mr. O'Connor and Ms. DeGrow over a variety of procedural issues. Mr. Mitchell, the only black member on the board, took particularly harsh criticism as he attempted to explain his position on the issue. "We're not voting on right or wrong; we're voting on whether it's legal," he said, being met with shouts that the petitions were not legal and questions of his commitment to civil rights. Opponents of the petition have argued, and witnesses testified both Wednesday and in July that they were subject to the tactics, that MCRI petition circulators had told people the proposal would protect, not eliminate, affirmative action to coerce them to sign it. Mr. O'Connor declined to vote after Mr. O'Brien said the attorney general had not, as board members had asked, investigated the allegations of fraud in collecting signatures.
"I think it is clear that the MCRI petition was crafted in a cynical, racist fashion," Mr. O'Connor said. "It was drafted with the intent to deceive the people of Michigan. It succeeded in that attempt." But MCRI officials argued the investigation never commenced because there was no evidence to support the fraud allegations. And they argued the content of the petitions was there to read and in the public discussion at the time the petitions were circulated. BAMN member Carl Williams attempted to end the meeting by presenting board members with a filing he had made at the Supreme Court purported to be an appeal from the Court of Appeals and a motion for a stay on the board's action. Patrick O'Brien, assistant attorney general representing the board, said the Supreme Court clerk's office had told him the filing was improper. He noted that the Court of Appeals had fined Mr. Williams and others for such inappropriate filings at that level.
Mr. Washington was not available for comment after the meeting and did not return calls for comment, so it was not clear if the issue would yet move to the Supreme Court.
Jerry Zandstra, the only Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate to support the MCRI, denounced what he said was anarchy at the meeting, and specifically called the Democratic members of the board "anarchists" and said supporters of the proposal would not be deterred "lawless" actions.
Even opponents of the MCRI were critical of the tactics. Dick DeVos, a Republican running for governor, said the behavior shown at the meeting "is just wrong and unacceptable."
Mr. DeVos said, "There is no place on any corner of the political spectrum for that kind of behavior. Honorable and reasonable people need to learn how to agree and even more importantly how to disagree."
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