Moral of the story- know what you are signing before you sign it.
The Michigan Supreme Court closed the door Thursday on a challenge to the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, denying a request to rehear a decision to place the issue before voters in November because of alleged irregularities in the collection of petition signatures.
In a five-page order, Justice Stephen Markman said the allegations, even if true, would not justify removing the issue from the ballot.
A citizen “cannot blame others when he signs a petition without knowing what it says,” Markman wrote. “It is not to excuse misrepresentations, when they occur, to recognize nonetheless that is the citizen’s duty to inform himself about the substance of the petition before signing it.”
Opponents of the ballot proposal, which would ban government affirmative action programs that use race or gender preferences in hiring, contracting and university admissions, claimed that petition signers had been lied to about the effect of the amendment.
I watched people grab Patterson's SBT petition and just start signing. They didn't read, they didn't care. All the petition guy said was, "Sign for a tax cut for business? Helps create jobs."
"Ok, sure." And that's all it took.
You can't tell me that people understood that SOS/TABOR petition. No way.
Not sure what to do about this. Public service announcements, maybe. More awareness in the media as the petitions are being circulated would be nice.