July 8, 2021 4:48 p.m.
The top Republican in the Michigan Senate recently previewed the GOP strategy to enact new voting restrictions in the state by circumventing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s (D) veto pen.
There’s long been murmurs in Michigan that Republicans would pursue an “initiative petition” to enact voting restrictions, which in Michigan would turn a proposal into law via the collection of around 340,000 signatures — the legal threshold of just 8% of the total vote cast in the last gubernatorial election — and the GOP-controlled legislature’s approval.
Now, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R) has acknowledged the strategy directly.
In an interview with JTV’s Bart Hawley that aired July 1, Shirkey acknowledged that Whitmer would be unwilling to sign a series of voter ID bills passed in the Senate last month, and noted Republicans likely wouldn’t have the votes necessary to override her veto.