May 06–LANSING — A second ballot proposal to try to stop the hunt of gray wolves in the Upper Peninsula was deemed to have enough valid signatures on Tuesday and will appear on the Nov. 5 general election ballot.
The proposal, which would repeal a law passed by the Legislature in 2012, had 182,732 valid signatures, exceeding the required 161,305 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.
The proposal, pushed by Keep Michigan Wolves Protected, will be the second of possibly three proposals regarding the wolf hunt that will appear on the November ballot.
There is already one wolf hunt proposal certified for the ballot, which would repeal a different law passed by the Legislature that authorized the hunt. After the anti-wolf hunt group turned in the first set of signatures, the Legislature passed another law giving the Natural Resources Commission the authority to designate game species and set hunting seasons for those game species.
Those two ballot proposals would repeal both the first and second laws passed on the wolf hunt.
A third wolf petition that supports the hunt in the U.P. would authorize the Legislature and the Natural Resources Commission to designate game species and, if it gained more votes than the other wolf petitions, would negate the anti-wolf hunt proposal. It is being organized by hunting, fishing and some conservation groups supporting the wolf hunt.
That group is still collecting signatures — 258,088 are needed for the citizen initiated initiative — and has until May 28 to turn in enough signatures. It’s the type of proposal that can go to the Legislature and, if there is enough support, it automatically becomes law. If there’s not the support, it goes to the ballot.
A wolf hunt was held in the Upper Peninsula last year, with the goal of killing 43 wolves in three sections of the U.P. in an attempt to cull the population that had grown to 658 wolves since 1973. When the hunt ended at the end of December, 23 wolves were killed.
Petitions for new party
Also before the Board of Canvassers Tuesday was a petition to create a new Independent political party from DaNetta Simpson, an unsuccessful candidate for the Detroit City Council and state House of Representatives.
The board approved the petition form, and now Simpson will have to collect 32,261 signatures from registered voters by July 17 to create a new political party, called the Independent Non-Affiliation Party of Michigan. She needs to gather at least 100 signatures each from seven of Michigan’s 14 congressional districts.
Simpson pleaded no contest in Oakland County Circuit Court in 1998 to assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder in connection with a 1996 incident in Southfield. She was ordered to spend 14 days in jail and put on probation for one year.