MICHIGAN BALLOT WONKERY THAT IS ACTUALLY INTERESTING (I think): From the Detroit Free Press

The Board of State Canvassers is an agency so obscure that news organizations often have a hard time getting its name right (leaving out the "state").

Even less often do citizens clearly understand what it is doing.

Monday was no exception as a pair of highly-charged issues -- Ralph Nader's independent candidacy for president and a constitutional amendment to prohibit same sex marriage -- came into the board's latest meeting with piles of petition signatures and what appeared to be a clear path onto the November ballot. Then they ran into a partisan train wreck.

The canvassers board voted 2-2 along party lines on both, leaving it for Nader and traditional marriage advocates to seek relief in court.

Legal experts around the state Capitol were almost unanimous Tuesday in the view that the board's action will be reversed by the appellate courts, and that Michiganders will be able to vote for (or against) Nader and same sex marriage.
But the tumult that it ignited raised questions that seem to recur periodically whenever the Board of State Canvassers wades into a fiercely contested issue. Such as, who the heck are these guys and what gives them the right to decide what goes on the ballot?

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posted by Eve at 7:12 PM | link

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