MICHIGAN VOTERS BILL OF RIGHTS, Third Party Coalition DRAFT DOCUMENT -- LAST EDIT 9-29-07
Article 1, Section 1 of the Michigan Constitution says "All political power is inherent in the people. Government is instituted for their equal benefit, security and protection".
To insure this inherent political power is instituted for our equal benefit, we, the People of the State of Michigan, call for a Voters Bill of Rights, to be enacted by legislation, ballot initiative, or amendment to our State Constitution to affirm and secure these rights:
1. Election laws and regulations shall be identical for all parties.
2. The requirement to qualify for statewide ballot access shall not exceed 5,000 valid petition signatures.
3. Public funding of primaries shall be eliminated.
4. No candidate shall be prohibited from participating in any public debate.
5. Instant Runoff Voting shall be instituted statewide.
6. Rotating ballot position shall be instituted statewide.
7. The ability to vote without producing a picture ID shall not be denied.
8. Same-day voter registration shall be available in every precinct.
9. Absentee voting by choice shall be instituted statewide.
10. Voting machines with verifiable hard-copy ballots shall be required.
11. Judicial candidates shall be nominated by petition and not by partisan caucus or primary election.
12. Candidates qualified as independents have the right to list their party affiliation on the ballot.
13.Congressional districts shall be drawn along municipal boundaries by a nonpartisan commission.
14. Delegates for a Michigan Constitutional Convention shall be selected in a nonpartisan election.
15. The enumeration of these rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people to ensure fair, equal, open and honest elections.
Join the conversation at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VotersBillOfRights
APPROVED BY: Green Party of Michigan, (Ken Mathenia, chair), Libertarian Party of Michigan (Bill Hall, chair), Reform Party of Michigan (Matt Crehan, chair), Socialist Party of Michigan (Matt Erard, chair), and the U.S. Taxpayers Party of Michigan (Jerry Van Sickle, chair).
WHY A VOTERS BILL OF RIGHTS IS NEEDED
Current electoral law in Michigan effectively limits political power to two parties. It says a major political party is "Each of the two political parties whose candidate for the office of secretary of state received the highest and second highest number of votes ..." (Act 116 of 1954, Sec. 16).
Election laws regulate how these two parties shall participate in taxpayer-funded primaries to choose their candidates, while rules for all other parties do not include this government-subsidized selection process.
This monetary benefit to the political power of only two parties constitutes Government enforced discrimination against those who are independent or members of other parties. The public is then spoon-fed pabulum from these two parties for six months while the media covers the primary as if they are the only ones on the ballot in November. When only two parties are invited to a debate and a third party candidate is arrested for trying to participate, our electoral process is broken (In 2004, the Green Party candidate for governor of Michigan was forcibly ejected and arrested for exercising his 1st amendment right and attempting to participate in a public debate. That same year, the Presidential candidates for the Green and Libertarian parties were both arrested for showing up at a Presidential debate). The right to free speech should be protected, not violated.
These obstacles are almost impossible to overcome. Add gerrymandering and the ability of the duopoly in power to write new laws whenever threatened, and their stranglehold on power becomes lethal.
Nonpartisan races show voters will elect people other than Republicans or Democrats, as they have by electing numerous independents and five Libertarian city council members in recent years, including two Mayors-pro-tem (Owosso and Hazel Park).
Beyond local elections however, the burden of complying with complicated campaign finance laws and raising enormous sums of money is extremely difficult unless you are wealthy or have developed, over decades, well-oiled party machines that know all the loopholes in the laws enacted for their own benefit.
Democrats and Republicans should not have a stranglehold on power -- their existence is not written into the constitution. However, it has been written into Michigan election law by those two parties to effectively suppress any challengers. Although some scholars consider these laws unconstitutional, the increasingly politicized courts have blithely enabled and condoned them.
Since the two parties in power are not inclined to voluntarily cede their control of the process, and court challenges to these biased laws are likely doomed to failure, a ballot initiative may be needed to change the Michigan Constitution.
The other alternative is to reexamine the entire document at a Constitutional Convention, scheduled for the ballot in 2010. If that is the eventual scenario, it is imperative that #11 be enacted prior to delegate selection (nonpartisan election of Constitutional Convention delegates). Then, independents and alternate party members are more easily promoted and elected as delegates to the convention. Otherwise the Constitutional Convention will be a free ticket for the two parties in power to continue writing the rules in their favor.
