MarkGrebner.Org

Dillon Recall Fails – NEWS FLASH

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by

Violet
in
by: Grebner

Fri May 23, 2008 at 15:33:58 PM EDT

We’ve just heard the Elections Division of the Secretary of State has determined the petitions submitted by Leon Drolet to recall Speaker Dillon are at least 500 short of the minimum required. 

Attached please find the preliminary finding compiled by the Bureau of Elections.

A summary of our finding is provided below:

Results of the prelimary findings are as follows:

  • Total number of valid signatures required – 8,724
  • Total number of signatures filed – 15,739
  • Result of face review – 14,659 vace valid signatures; 1,080 invalid signatures
  • Result of registration verificiations – 4,417 signatures discounted under signer registration verifications; 2,018 signatures discounted under circulator registration verifications.
  • Summary of initial peition review – 8,224 signatures accepted; 7,515 invalid signatures.

 The petition contains 500 fewer valid entries than the required number to initiate a recall election.  The challenge period expires on June 2, 2008.  We are available to discuss these preliminary findings. 

Comments

11 responses to “Dillon Recall Fails – NEWS FLASH”

  1. Violet Avatar
    Violet

    But they didn’t consider the duplicates!
    There is no evidence the Secretary of State considered the 1031 duplicate signatures which had been identified – apparently that challenge wasn’t needed to bring the total below the minimum, so it was simply put on the shelf.
    Further, there was no attempt to consider the problems of forgery, which affect large numbers.

    In other words, saying the petition was 500 short is being very generous.

    by: Grebner @ Fri May 23, 2008 at 14:46:38 PM CDT

    Reply
    1. Violet Avatar
      Violet

      The Elections Division isn’t done with the petitions.
      Contrary to my impression, this is only a “preliminary” determination, and they intend to continue reviewing the petitions. About 800 of the 8241 are invalid because of duplication, and substantially more are invalid because of forgery.
      If Drolet doesn’t simply pull the plug, it’ll be interesting to see how few valid signatures there are – maybe 4000?

      This wasn’t close, and nobody involved in it can honestly have believed it would be.

      by: Grebner @ Fri May 23, 2008 at 20:22:45 PM CDT

      Reply
  2. Violet Avatar
    Violet

    The previous comment can be ignored.
    I posted without noticing Alan Fox had previously left a more precise account.
    by: Grebner @ Fri May 23, 2008 at 20:30:26 PM CDT
    [ Parent ]
    It’s hard to model garbage statistically. (4.00 / 1)
    What I mean is, many signatures are bad for more than one reason. It may be that after the Secretary of State’s review, many of the signatures that are duplicated or fraudulent have already been removed because they were also incorrectly filled out, or were of people not in the district. (This last point is worth staring at in wonder: there were forged names of people at addresses NOT in the district! If someone takes the trouble to commit a felony, shouldn’t they at least look carefully at a map first?)
    Anyway, I’d like to revise my wild ass guess: maybe all the remaining challenges will reduce the count by another 1000, to just over 7000. If that ends up being true, Leon gets credit for being half-assed, rather than a complete fool.

    by: Grebner @ Sat May 24, 2008 at 11:20:59 AM CDT

    Reply
  3. Violet Avatar
    Violet

    What are the chances
    of someone being prosecuted for the alleged felonies?

    The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

    – Ralph Waldo Emerson
    by: michmark @ Sat May 24, 2008 at 13:32:18 PM

    Reply
  4. Violet Avatar
    Violet

    Prosecution? It’d be more likely if it weren’t in Wayne County.
    I think the Secretary of State folks would like to see somebody go to jail for this nonsense, but Kym Worthy seems to have her hands full at the moment.
    I suppose Cox might be willing to step in, but you never know where he’s coming from.

    I’m pretty sure there will be an effort to initiate prosecution. The real question is whether it gets bogged down before it bears fruit.

    It’s likely the targets will be the individual petition gatherers, who really don’t have any defense. I’m confident the people at the center have preserved their “deniability” as Nixon put it.

    by: Grebner @ Sat May 24, 2008 at 22:37:06 PM CDT

    Reply
  5. Violet Avatar
    Violet

    Hahahahahaha
    Moran!!!!
    Now will you please go away Leon?

    PS: start raising cash now jerkwad, we are going to fund any competition you have and if you manage to win, we are going to recall your ass…

    by: Nazgul35 @ Fri May 23, 2008 at 15:33:30 PM CDT

    Reply
  6. Violet Avatar
    Violet

    It’s not over yet…
    I have learned from the Elections Division staff that this report is based entirely on the staff’s own review of the face of the petitions and of the registration status of signers and circulators. They will only now take into consideration the challenges already made by Dillon, as well as any comments from the petition’s submitters.
    In particular, the staff has not yet looked at the duplicate signatures cited in the challenge. Nearly 800 of those signatures were not disqualified in the preliminary report but could be knocked out in the next stage. And Dillon’s challenges of hundreds of forged signatures have not been filed yet.

    When all is said and done, it seems likely that the petition will be found to be 1500 or more signatures short. It will not be a close call.

    by: alanfox @ Fri May 23, 2008 at 16:00:52 PM CDT

    Reply
  7. Violet Avatar
    Violet

    Shocking
    You mean to tell me that sitting in a bar and paying people to forge signatures using a Redford Township phone book is not part of a successful strategy to gather 8,000 valid signatures?
    By the way, is there any way we can tally the total costs to taxpayers for this nonsense and had the bill over to Leon? He was quite insistent that this wouldn’t cost a dime of public money. If he didn’t blow all of the money he raised on paying homeless people to sign his petitions, it’ll be a good way for him to show how sincere he was about that.

    Among the Trees

    by: Eric B. @ Fri May 23, 2008 at 16:29:53 PM CDT

    Reply
  8. Violet Avatar
    Violet

    Where is Leon Drolet?
    Remember: We drink when he comments!

    Putting conservatives in charge of our government makes about as much sense as GM hiring a CEO who hates cars.
    by: djtyg @ Fri May 23, 2008 at 18:05:31 PM CDT

    Reply
  9. Violet Avatar
    Violet

    The real question…
    Since these problems were apparent for a few weeks, the question has to be asked whether his decision to not run for re-election to the Macomb County Board of Commissioners was at all influenced by knowledge of a looming failure in this recall campaign.
    I know he said that he had other anti-tax commitments, but after first raising and then squandering $100,000 on a campaign that couldn’t even get 8,000 valid signatures (and probably substantially less than that) it’s difficult to imagine anyone hiring him for a job that provides real authority.

    But, then again, he did tell us that he has no useful skills to offer. Guess he was right on that, after all.

    Among the Trees

    by: Eric B. @ Sat May 24, 2008 at 00:05:40 AM CDT

    Reply
  10. Violet Avatar
    Violet

    Thank you Mark Grebner and Alan Fox
    I have tremendous respect for anything I read from both of you. Keep doing the great work. I am grateful for your reporting.
    by: doxie53 @ Sat May 24, 2008 at 07:33:23 AM CDT

    Reply

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