State Rep. Rachelle Smit, R-Martin, today released the following statement after being named to the new state House select committee tasked with examining the circumstances surrounding the Americans for Citizen Voting petition, which submitted 709,841 signatures but was recently prevented from advancing to the November ballot.

“It isn’t just enough to call something out for being broken, someone has to roll their sleeves up and actually be the one to fix it. That spirit is exactly why I’m honored to serve on this select committee so we can finally investigate the broken process in which citizen-driven petitions are certified in Michigan.

“Every petition requires support from hundreds of thousands of people to be successful. Some gain that supports and others fail for a variety of reasons. Invalid petitions should not be allowed to succeed. But, as the system stands now, the vetting process does not truly unearth whether a sufficient number of signatures has been obtained. By limiting ourselves to a 1,000-signature sample, it turns the Board of State Canvassers into nothing more than a game of chance. The vetting process in our current system is about as robust as young children drawing straws to see who does the dishes that night.

“The sample process is one of the many problematic ways our state deals with these petitions. I’m confident our committee will go through the process line by line and make sure the public understands exactly how the system is supposed to work. And if it’s so broken or confusing that no one can fully understand the rules, then we’ll make policy recommendations to update the process. The success of this effort is imperative to ensure public trust in future decisions by the State Board of Canvassers.”

The Michigan House of Representatives voted to create the Select Committee on Rules and Procedures of the Bureau of Elections and the Board of State Canvassers after the Michigan Board of State Canvassers recently deadlocked on whether the initiative had collected enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. The proposed constitutional amendment would require individuals voting in Michigan elections to prove they are U.S. citizens.

The Board of State Canvassers spent nearly seven hours reviewing petition signatures Monday, Aug. 24, ultimately reaching a stalemate on whether the campaign had met the required threshold of 446,198 valid signatures. The decision centered on a 1,000-signature sample reviewed by election officials. According to the Bureau of Elections, Americans for Citizen Voting fell just short of the number of valid signatures needed within that sample to qualify for certification.

###