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After taking a thorough ass whoopin, Michigan GOP moves to cripple citizen initiated ballot initiatives.

Stay Up Be Easy

Stay Up Be Easy

Member
Dec 31, 2017
1,730
https://www.freep.com/story/news/po...igan-republicans-ballot-petitions/2268992002/

While the Legislature is voting on bills that would make changes to ballot proposals that were overwhelmingly approved by voters on Nov. 6, Republicans also are trying to put restrictions on the process of gathering signatures for future ballot proposals.
A bill introduced last week by state Rep. James Lower, R-Cedar Lake, would:

  • Invalidate signatures gathered by a petition circulator who was found to have misled people about a ballot proposal
  • Require circulators to prominently display if they are a paid or volunteering to collect signatures
  • Mandate that no more than 10 percent of the signatures gathered could come from any of the state's 14 congressional districts. There is no such restriction in current law
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What in the flying fuck!?!?!?!?
 
MinerArcaniner

MinerArcaniner

Member
Oct 29, 2017
6,267
Nothing says you support democracy more than sharply restricting people's ability to put issues on the ballot.

Except maybe gerrymandering districts or putting up barriers to PoC voting, of course.
 
Version 3.0

Version 3.0

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,215
It's amazing, honestly, the things they come up with to quasi-legally create a sham democracy where only Republicans are allowed to govern. Democrats' response, so far, is to point out that these things are wrong, but so many of them are not technically illegal, so they stand. I'm not optimistic about the chances of digging these evil scumbags out of government through normal means. If you can't vote them out, what options are realistically left?
 
MinerArcaniner

MinerArcaniner

Member
Oct 29, 2017
6,267
Version 3.0 said:
It's amazing, honestly, the things they come up with to quasi-legally create a sham democracy where only Republicans are allowed to govern. Democrats' response, so far, is to point out that these things are wrong, but so many of them are not technically illegal, so they stand. I'm not optimistic about the chances of digging these evil scumbags out of government through normal means. If you can't vote them out, what options are realistically left?
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It is ultimately on voters themselves to vote out anyone trying to pull this shit, regardless of party affiliation.

If voters are willing to let stuff like this slide to get what they want in the short term, then they'll have to just lie in the bed they made when it blows up in their faces.
 
Sho_Nuff82

Sho_Nuff82

Member
Nov 14, 2017
18,456
So if you have 100 people in district 1 and 1000 people in district 2, this measure would give them the same voice in approving ballot measures. Uh...
 
Hiphopopotamus

Hiphopopotamus

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
7,885
Michiganders need to make these people's lives very, very uncomfortable. They're telling you only their sister-fucking base matters, and if you aren't waiving a Traitor Flag on your rusted-out shit bucket or laughing at poisoned Flint residents you're simply an annoyance to be marginalized.

These folks are trying to literally rip food from your kids' mouths. React accordingly
 
Angry Grimace

Angry Grimace

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
11,539
Inuhanyou said:
leftist oriented ballot initiatives win a majority of the time. that's why the GOP are attempting to destroy them.
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I just get concerned that at some point the citizenry will pass a "don't have to actually pay taxes" initiative because that happens when you don't have a legislative body looking over something. That's how we ended up with Prop. 13 in California, I believe.
 
daegan

daegan

#REFANTAZIO SWEEP
Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,905
yeah the majority of the state legislature is beyond a goddamn joke
 
Version 3.0

Version 3.0

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,215
Sho_Nuff82 said:
So if you have 100 people in district 1 and 1000 people in district 2, this measure would give them the same voice in approving ballot measures. Uh...
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Districts are roughly the same size in population. I assume the reason they're doing this, though, is because due to gerrymandering (along with natural factors, like cities being mostly Dem), Democrats are heavily concentrated in a few districts, while Republicans have relatively narrow majorities in many. So if the state is 50/50 Dem/Rep, but almost all those Democrats live in 3 or 4 districts, you eliminate almost all those people from being allowed to contribute their signatures.

In practical terms, this is designed to prevent Democrats from getting the signatures needed for a ballot initiative just from the few large cities.

It's the Republicans' new battle cry: cities shouldn't count.
 
SegFault

SegFault

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,939
Shit like this is why the civility fetishists need to shut the fuck up. Fuck the gop. Republicans are all bad and will never ever play ball with you if it means ceding even one iota of power.
 
Plinko

Plinko

Member
Oct 28, 2017
18,587
For reference:

lossless-page1-1200px-Michigan_Congressional_Districts%2C_113th_Congress.tif.png
 
Baji Boxer

Baji Boxer

Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,383
Hiphopopotamus said:
If 80% of your population lives in 3 districts, you can never get more than ~30% of the signatures necessary to promote a ballot measure from an overwhelming portion of the electorate.

It's fascism
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Ah, I see. No more than 10% from any one district. Still fascist bullshit, but I was reading it as all the districts... like, it was physically impossible to do lol.
 
Baji Boxer

Baji Boxer

Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,383
Tigress said:
Yeah but scotus is now majority republican too
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Good news is that Planned Parenthood got a Supreme Court victory today, with both Roberts and Kavanaugh rejecting an attempt by a couple states to reinstate some Planned Parenthood defunding laws. (Lower courts had tossed the legislation). So it's not complete fuckery up there yet.
 
OP
OP
Stay Up Be Easy

Stay Up Be Easy

Member
Dec 31, 2017
1,730
Hiphopopotamus said:
Michiganders need to make these people's lives very, very uncomfortable. They're telling you only their sister-fucking base matters, and if you aren't waiving a Traitor Flag on your rusted-out shit bucket or laughing at poisoned Flint residents you're simply an annoyance to be marginalized.

These folks are trying to literally rip food from your kids' mouths. React accordingly
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Version 3.0 said:
In practical terms, this is designed to prevent Democrats from getting the signatures needed for a ballot initiative just from the few large cities.

It's the Republicans' new battle cry: cities shouldn't count.
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It's the same thing going on in Wisconsin.

They actually argue that if it wasn't for Milwaukee & Madison they're candidate would have easily won. So that justifies crippling the office's power.

Michigan might be better off if an earthquake sank the UP into a lake. So fucking tired of districts filled with pine trees and deer getting to run roughshod over the spot in the state people actually live.
 
OP
OP
Stay Up Be Easy

Stay Up Be Easy

Member
Dec 31, 2017
1,730
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/n...sts-gop-plan-petition-drive-rules/2288642002/

Right to Life of Michigan is fighting a Republican proposal to toughen petition drive rules and putting pressure on GOP lawmakers who typically align with the anti-abortion group.
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Looks like they might have overplayed their hands with this one.

The state House Elections Committee advanced the measure Wednesday morning in a 6-3 vote, but chairman Aaron Miller, R-Sturgis, said "compelling" testimony from Right to Life could prompt changes on the floor.
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Oh, nevermind.
Good to know who really runs this state. Because the majority of the voters sure fucking don't.
 
PHOENIXZERO

PHOENIXZERO

Member
Oct 29, 2017
12,112
Been waiting for a topic on the bullshit Michigan GOP is pulling because I don't like making topics...

These sacks of shit rushed to pass legislation to raise the minimum wage and move tipped workers to it while tying increases to inflation with requiring paid sick leave just to avoid it being put on the ballot after a successful petition only so after the election they could go back and gut it and surprise, the lame duck fucks along with their other shit did just that.

Outgoing Michigan GOP Governor Signs Bills Gutting Minimum Wage Hike, Paid Sick Leave

Outgoing Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) on Friday signed off on legislation gutting paid sick leave and minimum wage provisions in the state, the culmination of his party's strategy to keep the popular measures off the ballot last month.

Passed by a lame-duck GOP state Legislature, the bills are meant to replace stronger measures that hundreds of thousands of Michigan voters had pushed for in a grassroots effort this fall. The new laws provide mainly a cosmetic lift to the wage floor and a gutted paid sick leave measure that leaves out an estimated 55 percent of the state's workers.

In a statement on Friday, Snyder said that the original ballot proposals were well-intentioned but would have resulted in "burdens for employers."

He touted both bills as a win for Michigan workers.

"I look at legislation presented to me through a policy lens ― is it the right policy for the state of Michigan and Michiganders as a whole? That's what I did with these bills and have now signed them into law," Snyder said.
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The lawmakers initially adopted the proposal and passed it into law. But they made it clear at the time that they planned to amend and gut the measures after the election.

And that's what happened. The ballot measure, called One Fair Wage, sought to raise the minimum wage from $9.25 to $12 by 2022. It would have also eliminated the tipped minimum wage, raising it to $12 an hour by 2024, from the current $3.52.

The version of the bill Snyder signed delays raising the minimum wage to $12.05 an hour until 2030. That means the minimum wage will go up 23 cents each year. The tipped minimum wage will stay put.
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