Kathleen Gray

Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

LANSING — Eight new recall petitions have been filed with the Secretary of State against Gov. Rick Snyder for his role in the handling of the Flint water crisis.

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Seven of the new ones come from Detroit pastor Angelo Scott Brown, whose previous attempts to have recall language approved failed before the state Board of Canvassers. The eighth comes from Quincy Murphy, a Flint resident, seeking to recall Snyder “for failing to protect the health and safety of the citizens of Flint, which has resulted in a state of emergency for Genesee County because of toxic lead levels in the drinking water.”

Brown’s petitions call for Snyder’s removal from office because, they say, he let down the people of Flint; has demonstrated incompetency; has broken his promise to the taxpayers of the state; has violated the standards of the governor’s office; has made more problems for the residents of Flint, and because his oversight in the first nine months of 2015 did not work well for the residents of Flint and he should be held accountable for allowing residents to continue using contaminated water.

His previous petitions - he's now filed 11 recall petitions against Snyder - were rejected by the Board of Canvassers, first because he referenced events that took place during Snyder’s first term and secondly, because he didn’t state his reasons clearly or factually.

The petitions come as Snyder is dealing with a growing crisis related to Flint’s drinking water. It began when the city's drinking water became contaminated with lead in 2014 after its supply source was switched from Lake Huron water treated by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to water from the Flint River treated at the city's water treatment plant.

Immediate complaints about the odor, smell and taste of the water were downplayed and largely ignored by the state before the Department of Environmental Quality acknowledged in October that it had failed to require the addition of needed corrosion-control chemicals, which resulted in lead leaching from pipes and fixtures into the water. Snyder has declared a state of emergency in the city and in Genesee County, asked for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and ordered the Michigan National Guard into Flint to help distribute water and filters to residents.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that Flint experienced a spike in Legionnaire’s disease — including 10 deaths — but couldn’t attribute the increase to the lead in the water. The lung infection is caused by a type of bacteria that grows best in warm water and usually enters the body because it is breathed in.

On Thursday, more than 100 protesters came to the Capitol, loudly calling on Snyder to resign.

In total, 12 recall petitions have been filed against Snyder with the Secretary of State, all related to the Flint water situation, and two were filed in Washtenaw County, citing the emergency manager law and cuts to the School Aid Fund. Language was approved for those two petitions in 2011 and 2012, but the people seeking the recalls didn't get the necessary signatures to get the recall on the ballot..

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The Board of Canvassers will meet regarding the new recall petitions in the next two weeks. If any are approved, Brown and Murphy will have to collect about 790,000 signatures in a 60-day period to get the issue on the ballot.

In 2012, the Legislature passed bills that made it tougher to recall lawmakers and other elected officials, including the governor. The package restricted the time periods for voters to launch recalls, shortened the time period for collecting the required signatures, and, for the first time, required that the reasons cited for a proposed recall be factual.

On Thursday, the board approved the language of recall petitions against state Sens. Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, and Wayne Schmidt, R-Traverse City, for their votes to increase driver registration fees and gas taxes to help pay for road improvements. The circulators will need to gather 25% of the total vote for Governor in 2012 in each district. That translates into 22,388 valid signatures of voters in Meekhof's district and 23,384 signatures in Schmidt's district.

“It’s freedom of speech, and if that’s what they choose to do, I’ll fight every day for freedom of speech and for those constitutional rights,” Meekhof said. “They’re well within their rights to do that.”

Contact Kathleen Gray: 517-372-8661, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal

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