Petitions turned in on marijuana, stem-cell research, government overhaul

Supporters of three ballot proposals turned in sufficient petition signatures by Monday’s deadline to make the November ballot, giving Michigan voters even more to mull over in this hotly contested election year if those signatures are certified by the state.

Assuming the secretary of state validates the signatures, voters will decide the fate of a statutory proposal to permit the medical use of marijuana and constitutional amendments to permit stem-cell research and dramatically overhaul state government. Those three proposals make this an average year for citizen-driven initiatives, said Earl Ryan, president of the nonpartisan Citizens Research Council of Michigan.

“The largest number of proposals was 10, in 1978,” Ryan said. “Several years it’s been only one. This is a garden-variety group.”

However, the government-reform proposal, which would significantly restructure state government, “is far and away the largest proposal ever placed on the ballot,” Ryan said. “It amends more sections of the constitution, contains more words. By any stretch of the imagination, it’s the biggest.”

Continued – Michigan voters have a comparatively easy time getting their initiatives on the ballot, Ryan said. Some states require an initiative that will amend the constitution to be approved in two separate elections or require many more signatures than the roughly 380,000 needed here. Others require a specific geographic distribution for petition signatures.

In recent years drives to pass initiatives that amend the constitution have gained favor, putting voter-approved amendments like the 2004 ban on gay marriage out of reach of legislators or the courts and making it difficult for future generations to change them.

Unlike the other two proposals, the medical marijuana initiative would amend state law, not the state constitution. Backers of the initiative to allow the medical use of marijuana turned in more than 500,000 signatures several weeks ago. If it passes, the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act will allow authorized patients to use marijuana therapeutically under a doctor’s supervision.

Michigan would be the 13th state to legalize the medical use of marijuana. Five Michigan cities have approved the use of medical marijuana: Flint, Detroit, Ann Arbor, Ferndale and Traverse City. Medical marijuana initiatives generally have passed in states where they’ve been on the ballot, Ryan said.

Supporters of the proposal to amend the state constitution to allow embryonic stem-cell research turned in 570,000 signatures to the state Bureau of Elections on Monday. The initiative would amend the state constitution to authorize the destruction of human embryos created for use in fertility treatment but ultimately not needed and likely to be discarded. They would be used for research aimed at curing chronic and debilitating illness.

If it passes, it will end Michigan’s 30-year-old ban on scientific research that destroys embryos. Only four other states’ laws are as restrictive as Michigan’s: Arkansas, the Dakotas and Louisiana.

Michigan “should be a leader in science, not a backwater,” said Dr. Mel Lester, professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan. U of M scientists have been key supporters of the petition drive.

Finally, voters will need to wrap their brains around a proposal put forth by Reform Michigan Government Now, which turned in roughly 500,000 petition signatures Monday. The group launched a Web site Monday, where visitors can download the seven pages of language describing in mind-numbing detail what the proposal will accomplish. In plain English, here are a few of the changes it would create. The proposal would:

  • Reduce the number of state lawmakers from 110 to 82 in the House and from 38 to 28 in the Senate, and cut their pay and benefits to 2002 levels
  • Force lawmakers to disclose their personal financial records and prevent them from lobbying for two years after they left office
  • Empower a nonpartisan panel to redraw legislative district boundaries, rather than the political party in power in the House at the time
  • Eliminate two Supreme Court justice seats and cut state Court of Appeals judges from 28 to 21, while adding 10 judges at the circuit court level
  • Cut salaries for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and secretary of state
  • Cap the number of state departments at 18.

Voters will only read a 100-word summary on the November ballot, as mandated by state law. But polling locations will have lengthier descriptions available, should it occur to a voter to ask for one.

“I would be very surprised if by the time of the election more than a handful of voters actually read this,” Ryan said of the proposal’s details.

But Dianne Byrum, a partner at public relations firm Byrum Fisk (which provides public relations services to Michigan Messenger) and the spokeswoman for RMGN, said voters would not be confused by the measure’s length.

“I have full confidence that the general public is going to understand this completely,” she said. “Voters understand reducing the size of government, cutting salaries. These are straightforward, good-government proposals.”

Joe Lukasiewicz is listed as RMGN’s executive director. But Byrum said he works full time and would not be fielding calls about the proposal.