Carl Levin Recall Effort Falls Short, Activists Undaunted

Michigan residents seeking to recall United States Senator Carl Levin failed to collect the 468,709 valid signatures needed Before the December 31st filing Deadline.

Suttons Bay, MI (I-Newswire) December 28, 2012 - Michigan residents seeking to recall United States Senator Carl Levin failed to collect the 468,709 valid signatures needed Before the December 31st filing Deadline.

The petitioners had until 180 days after the language was validated to file the petitions with the Secretary of State. Since that day falls during a holiday break, the petitions were due by December 28th.

Recall co-organizer, Scotty Boman commented, “This is disappointing, but I knew it was a long shot. We tried our best to get the word out, but most politically active people were busy supporting candidates and initiatives that were being put up to a vote in the November 6th election.” The Committee to Recall Carl Levin made the petitions available online and encouraged signers to send the forms to the committee’s address.

The deadline wasn’t the only challenge faced by petitioners, said Boman, “Signatures must have been collected during a ninety day time window, and so we could only use the best ninety day span of signatures. Unfortunately, no such span included the minimum number of signatures.”

The effort to recall Levin was in response to a controversial Amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2012 which was drafted by Senators Carl Levin and Senator John McCain. The amendment allows for the military arrest and indefinite detention of persons on United States soil without trial or Habeas Corpus.

The first version of the petition language was rejected on May 1st 2012 based on reasons given by the Wayne County Election Commission at a clarity review hearing on that day. Boman and Raftshol presented new wording which was validated on July 4th by default. The new wording reads,

“He co-authored and introduced an amendment regarding detention provisions (Subtitle D Section 1031) to S.1867 (the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012). He voted in favor of the final version (H.R. 1540) which contained the detention provisions in section 1021.”

The default approval was due to a failure of the Wayne County Election Commission to hold a clarity review hearing to evaluate the revised language. The pertinent portion of section 168.952 of Michigan election law reads, “Failure of the board of county election commissioners to comply with this subsection shall constitute a determination that each reason for the recall stated in the petition is of sufficient clarity…”

Spokesperson and co-organizer Warren Raftshol said he would start a new recall. Boman said, “The failure of this attempt doesn’t prevent us from starting over and doing it again. It is essential that people be made aware of this abominable legislation, and their right to remove one of the people responsible for it.