Kathleen Gray

Detroit Free Press Lansing Bureau

LANSING — People organizing petition drives for ballot proposals will have to adhere to a strict 180-day window to gather signatures under a bill that was signed into law Tuesday by Gov. Rick Snyder.

The law signals another blow to petition drives that would have banned fracking and legalized marijuana in the state. Both groups had worked to gather the signatures -- and in the case of the marijuana ballot, had gathered more than enough signatures, but not in a 180-day window.

Snyder said he signed the legislation because the time limits to gather signatures was appropriate.

“Establishing reasonable time limits on when signatures can be collected helps ensure the issues that make the ballot are the ones that matter most to Michiganders,” Snyder said in a statement.

But opponents of the legislation, which passed on mostly party-line votes in both the House and Senate with only Republican members supporting the bill, have said the law impedes the people from having a voice in their own government and challenging legislation passed by the Legislature.

The group pushing a ban on fracking has already filed a lawsuit and MiLegalize group,,which turned in 354,000 petition signatures last week for their proposal to legalize marijuana, are considering challenging the law in court as unconstitutional.

The Secretary of State’s office said the MiLegalize petition is invalid because 137,029 of the signatures were gathered outside the 180-day window. The State Board of Canvassers will meet on Thursday to consider the Secretary of State's findings on the ballot proposal.

Right now, people collecting petition signatures for a constitutional amendment or legislative initiative have to gather those signatures in a 180-day window. If some of those signatures are challenged by opponents to the proposal as being collected outside that window, that objection can be challenged.

But the new laws remove the ability to challenge the exclusion of petition signatures and sets a hard 180-day window to gather signatures.

Contact Kathleen Gray: 313-223-4430, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal