A petition to end race- and gender-based preferences in affirmative action was rejected by the Michigan Board of Canvassers on Tuesday.
The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, or MCRI, petition was scheduled to go on the November 2006 ballot after garnering thousands of signatures statewide. However, after Tuesday's decision, MCRI will now have to take their fight to the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Board members Doyle O'Connor and Paul Mitchell voted against certifying the petition. Both are Democrats. Republican Katherine DeGrow voted in favor of certifying it, while Republican board member Lyn Bankes abstained from voting after Tuesday's more than six-hour meeting.
MCRI is a proposal to amend the Michigan Constitution by adding a new section that would prohibit state and local governments from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to any individual or group based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.
MSU graduate and MCRI supporter Joy Yearout said any decision the board made would have been further disputed in court.
"Everyone on that board knew this was going to court regardless of what decision was rendered," she said.
History junior Jeff Wiggins was not happy with the decision.
"Personally, I am disappointed that Lyn Bankes abstained from voting," he said. "If she would have voted there is no doubt the board would have certified it."
Shanta Driver, national coordinator for the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN, said although the outcome was positive, she was disappointed that the board did not launch a formal investigation into possible signature fraud.
The attorney general's office said the board does not have the authority to investigate claims of fraud, but Driver disagrees.
"The decision was pure politics and not about the law," she said. "They have the power to investigate anything and everything and the right to subpoena people."
MCRI Executive Director Jennifer Gratz could not be reached for comment.
While the meeting was taking place inside of the House Office Building, hundreds of students from Detroit Public Schools surrounded the building chanting "affirmative action must not die, separate but equal is a lie."
One high school student, Benea Gregory, a sophomore at Cody High School in Detroit, said she came to support her school.
"I came to support Cody High and BAMN members, too," she said. "The outcome of all this can affect whether or not black students will have a fair shot at college."
But East Lansing High School student Tyler Whitney said using affirmative action is not helping minorities.
"A lot of liberals think they are helping minorities, but they are creating this idea of low achievement," Whitney said. "There are poor white people as well, and admittance should be based on economic status, not race."
Affirmative action has potential to increase tension, said Paulette Granberry Russell, senior adviser to the president for diversity at MSU.
"It has elevated the discourse over the appropriateness of the consideration of race and gender in employment and admissions," she said.
During the heated meeting, parties from both sides had the opportunity to state their cause in front of the board.
One of the first speakers was Driver.
Driver told the board that one of the most precious civil rights that was attained was the right to use affirmative action. She accused MCRI petitioners of fraud and racially targeting black people to gain signatures. She added that MCRI petition circulators deceived black people saying the petition benefited affirmative action when in reality it was trying to end the program.
Driver also said Bankes plans to send a letter to the Legislature asking different bodies to hold hearings and launch an investigation.
MCRI's legal counsel Stephen Safranek said the petition was honest.
"Never has there been an initiative more honest than the MCRI's," Safranek told the board. "We would have cameras, real affidavits and just a plethora of evidence if this was indeed fraud."
Michigan National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, or NAACP, President Yvonne White said they are going to educate people more about affirmative action.
"We will certainly be on the watch now," she said. "We are going to educate people more so in the future they know exactly what questions to ask."
Jason Worthy can be reached at worthyj1@msu.edu.
