On a 3-1 vote Thursday, the Board of State
Canvassers denied the petition to raise the minimum wage a spot on the ballot.
The petition, which would raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour and raise the
tipped minimum wage up to the same rate, was denied in a bipartisan vote after
hours of consideration regarding duplicate signatures.
Raise Michigan, the group pushing for the
passage of the petition, had 259,776 signatures accepted by the board out of
the 319,641 signatures that were turned in. The group opposing the proposal,
People Protecting Michigan Jobs, argued that they had found 82 duplicate
signatures in the sample used to determine the validity saying that the total
signatures fell below the required 258,088 needed to gain a spot on the ballot.
While a challenge in court is still available
to Raise Michigan, the bipartisan denial of the petition is a significant
setback in their case. Had the board approved the proposal, the issue would
have moved to the Legislature who was expected to allow the proposal to move
onto the ballot by not acting.