Josef Stalin once said that “It’s not the people who vote that count. It’s the people who count the votes.”
Officials in Detroit and Wayne County have gone him one better. They are using their control of the ballot to restrict which candidates and proposals voters ever even get to consider.
Examples from just this election cycle are legion.
Last year, a group called the Detroit Coalition for Compassionate Care collected enough petition signatures to propose moving enforcement of marijuana laws against sick people (primarily those with cancer and AIDS undergoing chemotherapy) to the bottom of the city’s law enforcement priorities — including eliminating funding for such prosecutions.
Always resentful at being circumvented by the initiative process, local officials were especially vexed by a proposed policy revision of which they adamantly disapproved.
Detroit City Clerk Jackie Currie informed initiative organizers that while they had complied with all procedural requirements, the Detroit Law Department believed the proposal was “not a valid initiative.” The clerk would, therefore, not put the question on the ballot.
The coalition sued, making the seemingly self-evident points that, first, she had no such discretion under law. And second, any alleged legal defects in the proposed ordinance were necessarily hypothetical in any case since the measure had not yet been enacted by voters.
But Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny (and, perhaps not coincidentally, former head of narcotics enforcement in the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office) ruled in favor of the city’s position, thus protecting voters from the inconvenience of being asked to express an opinion on the matter.
Eliminating funding for certain prosecutions, opined the judge, would affect the city budget. This would put the measure in conflict with a provision of the initiative and referendum section of the charter: “However, these powers do not extend to the budget or any ordinance for the appropriation of money.”
Intended to prevent a few disgruntled citizens from using the petition process to delay appropriations pending an election, it is quite a legal reach to interpret this limitation as also prohibiting a policy change. Nor were any such concerns expressed by officials two years ago when an initiative mandated that the city only do business with contractors who paid their employees a “living wage”… a measure which is both substantial and costly rather than trivial and economizing.
Further, held Judge Kenny, the city clerk is empowered to pass judgment on the legality of any measure being proposed in determining whether or not it should go to the ballot.
A few weeks later the candidate filings of two of the gaggle of contenders to become the next Wayne county executive were challenged over statements they signed claiming that all their past campaign forms had been filed and any fines paid.
The pair apparently did have some outstanding fines.
While the secretary of state’s office was looking into the matter, Wayne County Clerk Cathie Garret preemptively certified the two for the ballot.
A complaint challenging this action ended up before the same Judge Timothy Kenny.
However, this time his honor ruled that a clerk’s power is to be narrowly construed. Since the clerk is not explicitly given any authority to inquire into the veracity of information submitted, her function is merely ministerial. Thus, she could certify these candidates despite any purported inaccuracies in their filings.
Mere days later, the Wayne County Election Commission decided against asking voters whether they thought individual cities should be permitted to opt out of the county’s community college district. Although typically imperious, the move was politically astute for, as every trial lawyer knows, you never ask a question when the likely answer is one you don’t want to hear.
Most recently, the Detroit Election Commission defied a state law requiring that voters be permitted to consider whether they would prefer having their city council members chosen from individual districts rather than electing them all at-large.
Not surprisingly, council incumbents were less than thrilled at the prospect. The Detroit Law Department member of the city election troika, Michael Karawoski, obligingly advised that this proposal was also defective and that the electorate must once again be protected from itself.
In joining against putting the measure on the ballot, Council President Maryann Mahaffey (who, along with Clerk Currie and attorney Karakowski, comprise the Detroit Election Commission) remarked simply: “It’s an ignorant bill.”
Yet another lawsuit was filed, this one by the governor, and assigned to that learned hand of election jurisprudence, the Honorable Timothy Kenny. But on this one, he ruled, the voters should be allowed to speak.
Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said she was not surprised by the decision, noting that Judge Kenny was appointed by Gov. Engler.
For those with the perseverance — and financial resources — to fight these arbitrary decisions on who and what does and does not make it onto the ballot, the appeals courts often provide some relief.
The Michigan Supreme court, for instance, just reversed the Detroit city council district proposal ruling (albeit for procedural reasons). And the medical marijuana advocates are appealing rejection of their initiative.
Perhaps at their next election, we’ll find out if Clerks Currie and Garret, Councilwomen Mahaffey and Cockrel, Judge Kenny and the rest of Detroit and Wayne county officialdom are correct about just how stupid their constituents really are.
In the meantime, one can only guess at the admiration old “Uncle Joe” Stalin would feel for these public servants.
It’s neither the people who vote nor the people who count the votes who seem to determine elections. It’s the people who control the ballot. And that is not the way this democratic republic is supposed to work.
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More on elections:
- Wasting your vote
- Term Limits — A baby step in the right direction
- It’s good to be King (or Clerk)
- Term Limits Redux
- Democracy and Democrats
- They say the Party’s over
- The limits of Term Limits
- Reforming campaign finance reform
- School millage fatigue
- King Edward of Wayne
- “None of the Above” for Governor
- Public Act 399 and the Michigan Legislation Factory
