Rick Snyder Recall Petition OK'd

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Recalling Gov. Rick Snyder is harder than ever under 2012 law he signed - On Dec. 27, 2012 Gov. Rick Snyder signed bills changing the state's recall rules. Three years later, those rules are throwing up new hurdles in an effort to recall him.

An effort to recall Gov. Rick Snyder got off the ground at a Board of State Canvassers meeting on Thursday. The man who submitted the language, Benjamin Lazarus, says he knows it's going to be difficult.

"It is an uphill battle and I'm unsure if we can gather the broad base of public support necessary to pull off a successful effort, but we have to try," Lazarus said.

Snyder has faced recalls before, including a 2012 effort by a group called Michigan Rising. Bruce Fealk was spokesman for the effort at the time and said gathering signatures was tough. To have an extra padding the group needed to collect 1 million signatures in 90 days. The 2012 law shortened that period to 60 days.

"That's almost an impossible task. And we were doing it with all volunteers," Fealk said. "I don't know how you could even hire enough people to get 166,000 signatures a day for 60 days."

Lazarus said his goal is also to collect 1 million signatures. The measure would need 789,133 valid signatures to make it on to the ballot, but gatherers typically collect a cushion to make sure the body of signatures passes scrutiny.

Lazarus's petition, as approved for circulation by the Board of State Canvassers, states:

"Gov. Rick Snyder signed Executive Order No. 2015-9, filed with the Secretary of State, on March 12, 2015, creating the State School Reform/Redesign Office within the Department of Technology, Management, and Budget, under Section II of the Order."

In other words, he's looking to recall the governor over education issues, not the Flint water crisis. Other activists have been trying to get language to recall Snyder on the Flint water crisis -- which exposed an unknown number of children to lead --  approved since November of 2015. But they're running into a different hurdle.

The 2012 law also made is so that recall petitions had to be both clear and factual. Previously, recall petitions just had to be clear. At a meeting this week petitions were rejected for typos and misspellings that led the Board of State Canvassers to conclude the petitions were not factual.

Now Lazarus is reaching out and said he would "absolutely" be willing to work with other people who want to recall the governor over the Flint water crisis.

Supporters said at a meeting Monday they would contact Lazarus about working with him. They may be coming at a recall from different ideological angles, though. Lazarus, who considers himself an independent, ran the campaign of Republican Alan Arcand in 2014. Arcand challenged U.S. Rep. Dan Benishek from the right.

Lazarus said he once supported Snyder but is now looking for recall partners in education and union realms.

"I did support the governor but after seeing what happened, especially over the last year, I think it's time for us to take action to remove him from office," Lazarus said.

When Gov. Rick Snyder signed the changes to the state's recall law in 2012 he said they were fair and consistent.

"The option to recall an elected official is an important feature of our state's democratic process, but Michigan's current recall system has some components that all sides have agreed are flawed," Snyder said in a statement at the time. "These changes will help ensure recalls are done in a fair and consistent manner and help prevent political gamesmanship from both sides of the aisle."

Changes to the state's recalls in 2012 included:

• disallowed recalls during the first and last year of an elected official's term in office for officials with four-year terms
• required each petition to "state factually and clearly each reason for the recall," a change from previous law that required only clarity.
• put recalls for state lawmakers before the Board of State Canvassers instead of county boards
• made it so that signatures had to be collected in a 60-day period instead of a 90-day period