On April 3, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed HB 5152, which repeals all restrictions on residency for petitioners. The new law says petitioners must be at least 18 years old, and a citizen. The bill had passed the legislature on March 27.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
This is great news!. Michigan has been a thorn in the side for people in the petition world for a long time.
Now somebody needs to go after the out-of-state petition circulator bans in the other states that still have them.
Actually, it isn’t written to apply to all petitions. It covers petitions for initiatives and referenda (under Section 482 of the Election Code); “qualifying petitions” for candidates with No Party Affiliation (under Chapter XXIVA) for offices named in Section 590b(4) (president of the United States, United States senator, governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state board of education, board of regents of the university of Michigan, board of trustees of Michigan state university, board of governors of Wayne state university, or justice of the supreme court) — but not petitions for major-party candidates for those offices; and petitions to form a new political party (under Section 685). Petitions approved as to form before the bill took effect were exempted from having to have the new requirement explained on them, but out-of-state circulators were immediately required to provide the “irrevocable written stipulation” required to make sure they could be served with process if there were a legal complaint about their petition.