News, Culture and NPR for Central & Northern Michigan
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
91.7FM Alpena and WCML-TV Channel 6 Alpena are off the air. Click here to learn more.

LGBT rights campaigners vow court fight after petition drive stalls

Hillcrest Rainbow Flag by Tony Webster is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

The Michigan Court of Appeals is the next stop for the petition campaign to add LTBTQ protections to the state civil rights law.

Fair and Equal Michigan wants to get its initiative before the Legislature or onto the 2022 ballot. That effort was stalled by a finding that its signature-gathering campaign fell short. That determination was affirmed by a 4-to-zero vote by the bipartisan Board of State Canvassers.

Campaign attorney Steven Liedel wants the state elections bureau to do a recount and include electronic signatures in its random sample.

“The core of our argument is that the signatures can’t be invalidated because they were submitted electronically.”

Liedel says the state already allows electronic signatures for other legal documents and petitions should be no exception. He says the challenge will be filed in 5 to 10 days.

Related Content