Only moments ago, Justice Brett Kavanaugh denied Americans for Citizen Voting–Michigan’s (ACVM) emergency request that the U.S. Supreme Court order their proof-of-citizenship and photo-ID constitutional amendment onto Michigan’s November 3 ballot.
The ACVM group had collected more than 700,000 signatures—well above the 446,198 required number to appear on the ballot.
Staff members of the Michigan Board of Elections allegedly took a “random“ sampling of 1,000 signatures and determined that 17 did not meet the required standard.
The problem is, the Michigan Board of Elections, which is under the direction of Michigan’s dirty Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, sat on the petition signatures for 5 1/2 months before even looking at it.
By the time they notified the petition organization, there was an issue with a small number of them; they only had a very short window to try to prove the names and signatures on the petition pages were valid.
Fortunately, the attorneys for the petitioners were able to come up with 23 affidavits from individuals attesting that the signatures on the petitions were theirs, which should have satisfied the MI Board of Canvassers demand. But on Aug 4, during a contentious back and forth, the MI Board of State Canvassers deadlocked 2–2 during a public hearing.
Two radical Democrats sitting on the board refused signatures that they both agreed were “perfect matches” with Michigan’s qualified voter file but dismissed them.
Even though they were received on Saturday, the two Democratic board members, who are also ACLU lawyers, claimed the signatures were received after the 10 AM deadline, so they refused to accept them.
In a normal world, this would go to the state Supreme Court, and they would rule in favor of the petitioners, as the Secretary of State‘s office has clearly gone out of their way to ensure that this proposal did not make it on the ballot.
If the signatures were perfectly matched, why were they being challenged in the first place? And why did they wait so long to tell the petitioners there was even a problem? And who made the decision about which random pages would be pulled from the boxes of petitions?
This situation is even more tragic when one considers that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told clerks in 2020 to ignore signature matching on absentee ballots for the November election.
Organizers argued the Board’s delay, its refusal to count late voter affidavits, and the Michigan Supreme Court’s failure to act violated due process and equal protection. Kavanaugh asked the State for a response, received a briefing on September 2, and issued a one-line denial on September 3 with no written opinion and no referral to the full Court.
The denial means the federal courts will not force the measure onto this year’s ballot. The Board of State Canvassers can finalize the November ballot at its Friday, September 4, meeting.
The only remaining path for 2026 is the still-pending Michigan Supreme Court case (No. 170595). The extremely liberal and partisan MI Supreme Court has not scheduled an argument or issued an order. If it does not act before ballots are locked by the MI Board of Canvassers tomorrow and subsequently printed, the proposal is off the November ballot and would most likely return, if at all, in 2028.
Sadly, this is yet another blow from the courts that allows Democrats to destroy the sanctity of Michigan’s elections.
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