In Grand Rapids today, the Michigan Civil Rights Commission released a report based upon public hearings around the state that included the testimony of over 500 people on the issue of how signatures were gathered to put the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI) on the November ballot. The MCRI ballot initiative will ban most affirmative action programs in Michigan if it passes. Commission chair Mark Bernstein said the “ballot initiative is based upon a massive campaign of fraud and deceit.” During the last of three Press Conferences held today in Michigan, two representatives from the Michigan Civil Rights Commission presented a summary of a 16 page report to the media in Grand Rapids that said there were “Acts of misrepresentation that occurred across the state, in multiple locations in the same community, and over long periods of time.” The report also states that “It appears that the acts documented in the report represent a highly coordinated, systemic strategy involving many circulators and, most importantly, thousands of voters.” Among some of the more interesting findings in the report:
The testimony at the hearings confirmed that the areas in which signatures were gathered were not selected arbitrarily or haphazardly, but rather in deliberate and calculated manner. African American circulators, some of whom did not understand the ballot proposal, were sent into these areas and unsuspecting African American voters were lured into signing the petition. From the public hearing testimony, these citizens believe that the actual ballot proposal is inapposite and incongruous to their own personal and firmly held beliefs about civil rights and affirmative action.
The citizens who testified presented credible and compelling evidence about deliberate and orchestrated fraud committed by circulators. Although the testimony came from both African American and White citizens, it became clear to the MCRC that the conduct of the circulators was not limited to a small number of isolated incidents, but rather a strategy that targeted African American citizens on a statewide basis. The petition circulators frequently chose locations where it would be expected that a large number of supporters of affirmative action would congregate, such as churches and community gatherings in African American neighborhoods. It was at these venues that African American circulators would ask voters to sign a petition to support affirmative action.
Ruthie Stevenson, President of the Macomb County Chapter of the NAACP, testified that she was approached outside the Mt. Clemens Post Office by an MCRI circulator. She was asked to sign a petition about affirmative action and was told by the circulator that Ruthie Stevenson supported the petition. Ms. Stevenson stated that she told the circulator, “I’m Ruthie Stevenson, and I’m not in support of this divisive initiative,” and the circulator walked away. Ruthie Stevenson also read an affidavit of Noah Felix who was also told by a circulator that Ruthie Stevenson supported the petition.
At the Lansing hearing, a petition circulator, Reverend Nathaniel Smith, described the petitioner orientation that he attended. He stated that petitioners (about 35 to 40 African American persons) were told that this ballot proposal was about keeping and maintaining civil rights. He had no idea that he was circulating a petition against affirmative action until a citizen told him. He stated that he then read the proposal and was humiliated and embarrassed when he realized that he had gathered at least 500 signatures that would place this type of amendment on the ballot. He stopped gathering signatures. He stated that he believed hundreds of people had signed the petition under false pretenses.
During the question and answer period, Chair Mark Bernstein noted that the group that initiated the MCRI effort would not attend any of the public hearings held across the state, but would be waiting nearby to counter the claims made by the public via the news media, which hasn’t been providing that context. Sure enough, as this writer was exiting the place where the Press Conference was held today, local NBC affiliate channel 8 was interviewing a representative from the group that “gathered” the signatures that put the MCRI on the ballot.
When asked by the news media what the Commission planned to do they stated that since they have no enforcement power they would call upon “call on Michigan Attorney General Cox to launch an investigation of criminal fraud….and urge the Legislature to draft strong preventative laws to prohibit similar conduct in the future. Also in attendance was the grassroots group By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) which stated that they were planning to file a class action lawsuit on the MCRI and is beginning a phone/fax campaign to target Governor Granholm, GOP candidate for Governor Dick DeVos, Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick, and Reverend Wendell Anthony, the head of the Detroit branch on the NAACP. The Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy has hard copies of the campaign sheets and will be obtaining an electronic version as soon as possible.
