A petition to recall Antrim County Clerk Victoria Bishop was resubmitted to the Board of State Canvassers last week.
The Board of State Canvassers requires that the stated reason for a recall “must be based upon the officer's conduct during his or her current term of office.”
Antrim County resident Ashley Areeda submitted the first petition, but it was denied by the Board of Canvassers in large part due to the language she used.
The reason given in Areeda’s first petition read, “the Michigan Bureau of Elections suspended Victoria Bishop’s access to the state’s Qualified Voter File (QVF) stating that her actions fell outside the scope of her statutory authority.”
When this language went in front of the Board of State Canvassers, Bishop’s lawyer, Kevin Kijewski, successfully argued that the petition did not outline the conduct of Victoria Bishop. Simply highlighting the actions of another government body was not sufficient to warrant a recall petition.
The petition failed along party lines, with the Democrats on the Board of State Canvassers arguing that voters should be able to attempt a recall without the language being scrutinized to this degree.
Heather Cummings (D) of the Board of State Canvassers said during deliberations, “I appreciated Ms. Areeda’s argument regarding ‘not everyone’s an attorney,’ and we have to trust the electorate on this… When I read it before anyone’s legalese and opinions, I thought it was sufficient.”
The language in the resubmitted recall petition, filed by Areeda last week, reads simply, “Victoria Bishop made changes to voter records outside her statutory authority.”
Areeda told IPR she worked with a lawyer to draft this version of the recall petition and that the language was “taken from and repeated in several of the Bureau of Elections letters sent to Bishop.”
The Board of State Canvassers has yet to schedule a hearing for Areeda’s latest petition. After receiving the recall petition, the board has 20 days to hold a hearing.
Victoria Bishop would not comment on this story.
