The state board’s decision to block the proposal’s inclusion on the ballot due to typos on some of the petition forms was overturned by the Michigan Supreme Court’s judgment on Thursday.
As abortion continues to be a contentious issue for both sides, the campaign to give voters the power to decide may be regarded as a harbinger of the high-stakes political war to come.
It was undeniable that supporters had gathered more than 750,000 signatures, which is far more than was needed to qualify for the ballot, but opponents pointed out that certain words did not have apparent gaps in between them.
The petition was denied by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers because of the spacing problem, which prompted the lawsuit.
Voters will decide whether or not abortion will be legal in Michigan after the state Supreme Court ruled the issue will be on the November ballot; above abortion rights supporters gather in Michigan earlier this week
The Michigan Board of State Canvassers rejected the petition for the ballot because some words lacked spaces between them
State Supreme Court Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack, in the ruling, called the board’s rejection ‘a sad marker of the times.’
‘They would disenfranchise millions of Michiganders not because they believe the many thousands of Michiganders who signed the proposal were confused by it,’ she wrote, ‘but because they think they have identified a technicality that allows them to do so, a game of gotcha gone very bad.’
The Michigan Supreme Court voted 5 to 2 to overturn the canvassers and place the question on the ballot
The state board is scheduled to meet Friday, when the board members are likely to vote to certify the petitions for the November ballot to comply with the high court order.
State Supreme Court Justice Justice David Viviano said he opposed placing the issue on the ballot because the text presented to voters on the petitions did not match what would be inserted to the Constitution.
‘This case raises a rather prosaic question with momentous consequences: do spaces between words matter?’ he wrote.
The ruling was the second major victory for abortion rights supporters in Michigan this week. On Wednesday, a state judge ruled that an abortion ban that had been on the books since 1931, which made no exceptions for rape or incest, violated the state’s constitution and could not be enforced.
Democrats hope the abortion issue brings their supporters out to vote in November
President Joe Biden is scheduled to be in Michigan next Wednesday when he attends the Detroit Auto Show.
Democrats see the abortion issue as one to help them get their voting bloc to the ballot as they try to keep their party in control of Congress.
The White House praised the ruling.
‘We are encouraged by the Michigan Supreme Court’s decision that will allow the proposed amendment to the state constitution affirming a woman’s right to choose to be put on the ballot this November,’ press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
‘Hundreds of thousands of people across Michigan took action to protect women’s access to abortion and reproductive care by getting this measure on the ballot,’ she said. ‘And millions more will be able to make their voices heard on this critical issue this November.’
Tom Bonier, a Democratic strategist and CEO of TargetSmart, a data and polling firm, noted that the number of young women registering to vote is on the rise in swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Ohio in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.
In an op-ed in the New York Times, Bonier analyzed the Kansas election where voters heavily defeated a constitutional amendment that would have removed abortion protections in the state. Ahead of that election, he noted that 69% of newly registered voters were women.
‘Women were engaged politically in a way that lacked any known precedent,’ he wrote.