Taxpayers to Recall State Representative Robert Dean

Three supporters of the recall drive against State Representative Robert Dean filed suit in Kent County Circuit Court yesterday to overturn the State law which prohibits non-residents of Dean’s district from collecting signatures on the recall petitions. The First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees the right to engage in political speech, and Michigan’s laws prevent those who wish to support a recall from doing so.

“As we saw last week, those who oppose the Dean Recall effort, but don’t live in his district, are free to utilize their First Amendment rights to try to verbally intimidate voters and stop them from signing a recall petition. However, those who support the effort are blocked from volunteering to assist in collecting signatures,” said Jeff Steinport, spokesperson for the Dean Recall effort.

Noting that state law allows both opponents and supporters from outside Dean’s district to donate to the recall efforts, Steinport said that, “…state law prohibits supporters from traveling to the district and asking voters to sign a petition. That’s a violation of the First Amendment.”

The suit, filed against Michigan’s Secretary of State, Attorney General, and the Kent County Prosecutor, in their official capacities, seeks to stop the enforcement of this unconstitutional ban on political speech.

Similar laws in other states, such as in Colorado and California, have been struck down on First Amendment grounds. “We are confident that the Supreme Court has already ruled in cases like this. We simply wish to enforce our democratic and constitutional rights by challenging this law. The citizens of Michigan deserve to be allowed to have their voices heard,” said Steinport.

For questions on the lawsuit, please contact Matthew Davis, Attorney for the Plaintiffs, at 517-913-5107.

View the documents filed with the court:

• Complaint
• Motion for Preliminary Injunction
• Brief in Support of Motion

Today is Presidential Primary Day in Michigan and the voting precincts in Grand Rapids are a war zone. Not between Mitt and McCain, Huckabee and Paul, but between citizens collecting signatures for the recall of State Representative Robert Dean (D-Grand Rapids) and the organized ‘blockers’ hell-bent on stopping voters from signing the recall petitions.

Blockers were already at the polls when the Dean-recall volunteers arrived this morning to collect petition signatures. And they are nasty! One senior citizen who tried to sign the recall petitions was yelled at by blockers who told her that she was “breaking the law and signing an illegal petition.” These same blockers followed the senior voter to her car, taking repeated, close-up snapshots with a camera and demanding that she produce photo identification to them (the blockers). Police were called, and (as I write this) are trying to sort things out.

The blockers’ primary tactic is to lie. First by claiming that Robert Dean didn’t vote for any tax increases, and then by telling potential signers that the petitions are illegal and that they are committing a crime by signing. The blockers continue to harass citizens attempting to sign by getting right-up into the signers faces with a camera and taking multiple photos of the citizen’s face. Their tactics would be the envy of a third-world dictator attempting to suppress democracy at the polls.

And that is EXACTLY what the blockers are determined to do: suppress citizens’ democratic involvement in their constitutional right to engage in the petition and recall process.

Stay tuned for more updates on both the recall effort and the efforts of recall opponents to stifle democracy.