Press Release - April 7, 2000
LANSING, Mich.-- ALL Kids First! today announced plans to challenge petition
signatures filed by the pro-voucher group Kids First Yes in their drive
to get a voucher initiative on the November ballot.
During an independent verification of petition signatures, a
statistically random sample of 5,349 names was matched against the
Secretary of State's qualified voter file and revealed that 25 percent of the
signatures, or more than 1,300 names, were invalid. Upon further inspection
of the gathered signatures, a date discrepancy was found, a number of
duplicate signatures were discovered and it appears that an individual
may have signed the petitions multiple times using a variety of names. The
date discrepancy, in particular, raises concerns that Kids First Yes may have gathered signatures while petitions were left unattended. According to
Michigan law, petitions must be supervised at all times when collecting
signatures. Twenty-seven of the sample signatures were found dated
AFTER the date circulators recorded to indicate petition circulation was
complete. "These signatures are not as clean as Kids First Yes was claiming
last week," said Georgene Campbell, chair of ALL Kids First!, a coalition of
education, child advocacy, civil rights and religious organizations
opposing school vouchers in Michigan. "The statistics we're seeing are raising
red flags. ALL Kids First! is going to ask the Secretary of State to
examine a larger sample of the Kids First Yes petitions to make sure signatures
were gathered in an appropriate and legal manner."
According to media reports, Kids First Yes last week claimed that
less than one-third of one percent of the 459,633 signatures they submitted
were invalid. However, the Secretary of State has not yet released the
findings of their verification of a sample of 528 signatures taken from the
petitions submitted by Kids First Yes. An independent verification of this
sample, matched against the qualified voter list maintained by the Secretary of
State, revealed that 23 percent of the 528 signatures were invalid.
Campbell said that ALL Kids First! will continue to verify petition
signatures while the Secretary of State and Board of Canvassers
investigate the group's challenge.
"At this point, our main concern is keeping Kids First Yes honest
in their dealings with Michigan voters," Campbell said. "Our challenge
will halt further progress of the voucher proposal until the Secretary of
State can take a closer look at these signatures and make sure the proper
procedures were followed."
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Friday, April 7, 2000
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Laura Wotruba
(517) 327-2589