A state elections board will decide Thursday whether to certify petitions to initiate two new state laws.
One would increase Michigan’s minimum wage. The other would allow wolf hunting in the Upper Peninsula.
We have more from The Michigan Public Radio Network’s Rick Pluta.
Opponents of the minimum wage drive have filed several technical challenges. They will also try to disqualify the petition drive because the Legislature repealed the law it would amend. But the petition drive organizers say that would disenfranchise thousands of people who signed. They say the job of the Board of State Canvassers is to determine whether petition campaigns gathered enough signatures, and leave other questions to the courts.
An analysis by the state Bureau of Elections says both petition drives have gathered enough signatures of registered voters to qualify. If the Board of State Canvassers agrees, that would put both questions before the Legislature to vote on. If the Legislature doesn’t adopt either, the state constitution says they’d go to the November ballot.