Elections board is outrageous

Editorial Board | PortHuron

If you’re wondering why Americans expect only the worst from their government, consider the cowardly, conniving actions of Norm Shinkle, chairman of the Board of State Canvassers. The only item on the board’s agenda this week is the certification of the anti-gerrymandering proposal for the November ballot. Rather than do the just, reasonable and democratic thing — putting the issue on the ballot — Shinkle canceled the board’s meeting.

The petitions circulated by Voters Not Politicians struck a nerve with state voters. Using entirely volunteer circulators, the group collected 394,092 signatures to get their question on the November ballot. Election Bureau staff members have determined that the signatures are valid, are far more than the 315,652 required, and recommended that the issue be placed before voters.

Voters Not Politicians wants to take the redistricting process away from the political parties, back-room politicians and special interests and make it the responsibility of a non-partisan panel that would follow the law instead of stacking the deck for whichever political party happens to control the Legislature when districts are redrawn following a decennial census.

Political mechanics have become increasingly sophisticate — and brazen — in their gerrymandering. That is why, in the Blue Water Area, we have legislative districts drawn to ensure that the voices of voters in Port Huron, Marine City, St. Clair, Marysville and Algonac are not heard. Across the state since 2000, voters have cast more votes for Democratic candidates for the state House and Senate, but more Republicans have been elected.

Gerrymandering disenfranchises voters and protects candidates and a system that can’t succeed on its own merits.

Shinkle’s cowardice does the same thing. Canceling the meeting and ignoring the Voters Not Politicians places his party above the people of Michigan. Shinkle is a district chairman of the Michigan Republican Party.

Four hundred thousand people signed those petitions. Democracy demands he do his job and let Michigan voters decide whether they have had enough of politics as usual. The board has only one legal option — certify the proposal for the November ballot.

It isn’t the first time Shinkle has shirked his responsibilities. In 2012, he helped defeat the will of the voters by arguing one letter ‘N’ on petitions to repeal the emergency manager law was the wrong size. In 2016, he scurried out of a meeting to prevent consideration of marijuana and anti-fracking petition signatures.

Michigan needs to reform its redistricting processes to make sure that all voters are treated equally and fairly.

And then Michigan needs to reform the Board of Canvassers to make sure all voters are treated equally and fairly.