Despite Fraud Judge Refuses to Strike Anti-Affirmative Action Initiative

From the Detroit Free Press:

A federal judge in Detroit refused Tuesday to remove the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative from the Nov. 7 ballot, even though he said promoters “engaged in systematic voter fraud by telling voters that they were signing a petition supporting affirmative action.”

The proposal would ban the use of race, gender, color, ethnicity or national origin in government and public school hiring, contracting and university admissions in Michigan.

U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow said he couldn’t remove the proposal from the ballot because the MCRI group targeted all voters without regard to race while gathering petition signatures.

“Because the Voting Rights Act is not a general anti-voter fraud statute, but rather prohibits practices which result in unequal access to the political process because of race, the Court must conclude that the defendants’ conduct, through unprincipled, did not violate the act,” Tarnow wrote.

So MCRI canvassers committed Voter Fraud, but didn't violate the Voting Rights Act as charged. The enforcement of the "letter" of the law and ignoring the "spirit" of the law is the choice Tarnow made.

As Tarnow said in his opinion:

“With the exception of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, the records shows that the state has demonstrated an almost complete institutional indifference to the credible allegations of voter fraud raised by plaintiffs,” Tarnow said.

Republican controlled state organizations are ignoring the disenfranchisement of the state's citizens who were lied to by MCRI canvassers. It is now up to activist groups in Michigan to mobilize voters and insure this initiative and the radical right-wing agenda are defeated.