FONT SIZE???!
[NOTE: This post has been updated HERE.]
In a clear act of desperation, a group opposing the repeal of Public Act 4 — Michigan’s Emergency Manager law — are challenging the petitions because they say the font size is too small.
[O]pponents of the referendum drive say they’ve found what they’re calling a “fatal error” on the petitions.The group Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility says the petition itself is printed in the wrong type size, which is contrary to state law.
The group will ask a bipartisan state elections panel to throw out all the petitions at a hearing expected to be held later this month.
UPDATE: More from ClickOnDetroit.com:
Bob LaBrant of Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility said the petitions turned in by the pro-repeal group Stand Up for Democracy aren’t legal because the heading is printed in a type that’s smaller than required. A printer’s affidavit says the heading size is correct, but LaBrant contends that “two experienced printers” disagreed.“It’s somewhere between 10 and 12-point, rather than the 14-point size required, he said, suggesting the type was the size generally used in the body of a letter rather than in a larger heading. Opponents also say the proposal’s summary is “incomplete and misleading” and that the petition language has other glitches.
I asked Brandon Jessup, head of the group Michigan Forward who spearheaded the effort to put the repeal on the November ballot, about this turn of events. “They are desperate,” he told me. When I asked if their challenge is legitimate, he said simply, “No.”
If the petitions were rejected due to this technicality, I fear for what might happen in our state. It’s not too hard to imagine that the response to such a blow to the repeal effort might result in a great deal of unpleasantness, potentially even violence. I hope I am wrong.
