Jacob Bell
New Member
KALAMAZOO – Originally the organizer of a push to get a medical marijuana dispensary ballot measure before Kalamazoo voters in November was told he was 73 signatures short of that goal.
But it turns out, the Kalamazoo Coalition for Compassionate Care, headed by Chris Chiles, did get the needed number of valid signatures on the petitions to appear on a ballot – 2,575 valid names, when the minimum required was 2,567.
The Kalamazoo City Clerk's office erred in not counting all the valid signatures on the coalition's petitions, in some cases because of illegible signatures that didn't seem to match names in the city's registered voter list, City Clerk Scott Borling said.
It was Chiles who brought the valid-but-uncounted signatures to the attention of the clerks' office.
But the ballot question – Shall the Kalamazoo City Charter be amended to such that three (3) medical cannabis dispensaries are permitted within the city limits? – still won't be up for vote this November, Borling said.
He said the next chance to put the question to a vote in Kalamazoo is the November 2012 election.
Chiles, who initially celebrated the corrected mistakes, was then disappointed by the news that the question won't appear on the ballot in Kalamazoo this fall even though the coalition secured the needed signatures.
He told the Kalamazoo Gazette that he is consulting with his attorney and questions whether missing the signatures was an honest mistake by the clerk's office or a tactic.
"We are likely going to sue the city of Kalamazoo over this delay of petition certification caused strictly by the Clerk's office," Chiles wrote.
To appear on the ballot in November, the ballot language for this local question had to be certified by the city clerk by Aug. 30.
To be certified by the clerk, however, the ballot language must be approved by the Michigan attorney general by state law, Borling said. (See the second paragraph of the charter-amendment procedures in the Home Rule City Act here.)
Chiles turned in signatures on Aug. 9 and 10 and Borling's office finished counting them on Aug. 24, though they had 45 days to verify the validity of the signatures.
"It's unlikely you'd get an attorney general response within six days," Borling said.
Miscounting was revealed by Chiles who had requested by Freedom of Information Act, the petitions as reviewed by clerks' office, including notations about which signatures were deemed valid signatures and which were not.
Chiles cross-referenced those signatures with the city's registered voter list, found many to be valid, and presented that information to the city clerk.
Borling told the Gazette that "we reviewed the names, in a few cases we missed a name, one that was registered."
"But in a lot of cases, the situation was the names were illegible ... and originally when we did our canvass, we looked up the names as we could read it and they did not appear in the qualified voter file," Borling said.
With errors corrected, Chiles was looking forward to Kalamazoo voters tackling this issue in November of medical marijuana dispensaries.
That apparently now not a possibility this year, Chiles said "I'm very concerned about the legitimacy of Democracy here."
But another issue facing the coalition's proposed ballot measure is the Court of Appeals' recent decision on dispensaries. The appeals court ruled that medical marijuana dispensaries that do patient-to-patient sales are illegal in Michigan.
Undeterred, Chiles said there's a chance that ruling will be addressed by the Michigan Supreme Court.
News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: mlive.com
Author: Paula M. Davis
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: Michigan Live LLC.
Website: With Kalamazoo city clerks' error corrected, petition for 2nd marijuana ballot measure garnered needed number of signatures afterall
But it turns out, the Kalamazoo Coalition for Compassionate Care, headed by Chris Chiles, did get the needed number of valid signatures on the petitions to appear on a ballot – 2,575 valid names, when the minimum required was 2,567.
The Kalamazoo City Clerk's office erred in not counting all the valid signatures on the coalition's petitions, in some cases because of illegible signatures that didn't seem to match names in the city's registered voter list, City Clerk Scott Borling said.
It was Chiles who brought the valid-but-uncounted signatures to the attention of the clerks' office.
But the ballot question – Shall the Kalamazoo City Charter be amended to such that three (3) medical cannabis dispensaries are permitted within the city limits? – still won't be up for vote this November, Borling said.
He said the next chance to put the question to a vote in Kalamazoo is the November 2012 election.
Chiles, who initially celebrated the corrected mistakes, was then disappointed by the news that the question won't appear on the ballot in Kalamazoo this fall even though the coalition secured the needed signatures.
He told the Kalamazoo Gazette that he is consulting with his attorney and questions whether missing the signatures was an honest mistake by the clerk's office or a tactic.
"We are likely going to sue the city of Kalamazoo over this delay of petition certification caused strictly by the Clerk's office," Chiles wrote.
To appear on the ballot in November, the ballot language for this local question had to be certified by the city clerk by Aug. 30.
To be certified by the clerk, however, the ballot language must be approved by the Michigan attorney general by state law, Borling said. (See the second paragraph of the charter-amendment procedures in the Home Rule City Act here.)
Chiles turned in signatures on Aug. 9 and 10 and Borling's office finished counting them on Aug. 24, though they had 45 days to verify the validity of the signatures.
"It's unlikely you'd get an attorney general response within six days," Borling said.
Miscounting was revealed by Chiles who had requested by Freedom of Information Act, the petitions as reviewed by clerks' office, including notations about which signatures were deemed valid signatures and which were not.
Chiles cross-referenced those signatures with the city's registered voter list, found many to be valid, and presented that information to the city clerk.
Borling told the Gazette that "we reviewed the names, in a few cases we missed a name, one that was registered."
"But in a lot of cases, the situation was the names were illegible ... and originally when we did our canvass, we looked up the names as we could read it and they did not appear in the qualified voter file," Borling said.
With errors corrected, Chiles was looking forward to Kalamazoo voters tackling this issue in November of medical marijuana dispensaries.
That apparently now not a possibility this year, Chiles said "I'm very concerned about the legitimacy of Democracy here."
But another issue facing the coalition's proposed ballot measure is the Court of Appeals' recent decision on dispensaries. The appeals court ruled that medical marijuana dispensaries that do patient-to-patient sales are illegal in Michigan.
Undeterred, Chiles said there's a chance that ruling will be addressed by the Michigan Supreme Court.
News Hawk- Jacob Ebel 420 MAGAZINE
Source: mlive.com
Author: Paula M. Davis
Contact: Contact Us
Copyright: Michigan Live LLC.
Website: With Kalamazoo city clerks' error corrected, petition for 2nd marijuana ballot measure garnered needed number of signatures afterall
