Quote of note:

The commission found that MCRI targeted African-American communities and areas where large numbers of African Americans congregate in a "deliberate and calculated manner." Signature collectors would then tell these Michigan residents that by signing the petition to qualify the initiative, they would be protecting affirmative action.

Commission: Connerly Anti-Affirmative Action Ballot Campaign Misled Voters
By Tyler Lewis
civilrights.org
June 13, 2006

A new report by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission has concluded that Ward Connerly's so-called Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), which would eliminate equal opportunity and affirmative action initiatives in higher education, employment, and contracting in Michigan, obtained its petition signatures fraudulently.

The report, which includes affidavits from hundreds of voters, is based on public hearings held over the past five months in four Michigan cities - Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, and Lansing. Earlier this year, Governor Jennifer Granholm asked the Commission to look into widespread reports that signature collectors had misled voters about the effects of the ballot proposal

"The people of Michigan were misled into signing a petition they would never have signed had they known the true intent of the initiative." said Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. "The commission's report confirms the fact that this proposal should never have been placed on the ballot."

According to the report, citizens at the hearings "believe that the actual ballot proposal is inapposite and incongruous to their own personal and firmly held beliefs about civil rights and affirmative action."

The commission found that MCRI targeted African-American communities and areas where large numbers of African Americans congregate in a "deliberate and calculated manner." Signature collectors would then tell these Michigan residents that by signing the petition to qualify the initiative, they would be protecting affirmative action.

The commission recommended that the Michigan Attorney General investigate the allegations of fraud; that the state Supreme Court "reconsider" the Court of Appeals ruling which placed the proposal on the ballot; and that the state legislature work to prevent future voter fraud in the ballot petition process.