LANSING, Mich., May 6, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ ----The following statement was issued today by Taxpayers United Michigan Foundation:

"For nine months, Michigan's 7.2 million registered voters have been shoved aside as officials from both the Michigan Democratic and Republican Parties embarrassed grassroot citizens by grandstanding in national news media for 'Michigan relevance' which they mistakenly anticipated by their shift to an Early Open Michigan Presidential Primary Election on January 15, 2008," said Bill McMaster of Taxpayers United in the State Capitol press room in Lansing yesterday.

"Recent developments in the Federal District Court of Judge Nancy Edmonds in Detroit, and in the recently corrected and published position of Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, have cleared the way to replace the meaningless and wasteful $10.4 million unconstitutional statewide Presidential Preference Election with the conduct of a caucus by each political party. That method was routine in Michigan during past four-year cycles and unchallenged by unelected national political party enforcers in Washington," McMaster noted.

"Grassroot citizens knew Public Act 52 of 2007 unfairly violated every voter's US Constitutional right to secrecy of the ballot and equal protection of the laws from the moment state legislators disclosed last October they'd concocted the Michigan Early Open Presidential Primary Election in secret and Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) signed it into law.

"Another reason the January 15, 2008 date was chosen was the undeclared relevance of legislators intending to add a legislative initiative to amend Term Limits in our Michigan Constitution on the same statewide ballot. Only the dragged out court fight on the Michigan Presidential Primary delayed the proposed Term Limits amendment from being timely scheduled for January 15. It would have extended the terms in office of many sitting state legislators. Citizen volunteers in Taxpayers United helped kill that scheme. Despite 51% of Michiganians voting independent; the five 'minor' political parties being closed out from voting on January 15, 2008, and Obama and Edwards not even being listed on the Democratic Party official ballot, both Democrat and Republican officials heralded the Michigan Presidential Primary as 'guaranteed' to force the Democratic National Committee to reinstate 100% of the Michigan delegates they'd stripped of credentials to the August National Democratic Convention in Denver, and 50% of the Republican delegates chosen to participate in Minneapolis in early September this year.

Gov. Granholm, U.S. Senators Carl Levin (D) and Debbie Stabenow (D) jointly rigged the Primary by endorsing Hillary Clinton well before January 15.

The Michigan Republican Party must convene a caucus this month because Mitt Romney beat McCain 2-1 and the Republican National Presidential Convention delegates selected from each of Michigan's 15 Congressional Districts were committed to Romney as a result of the now invalidated January 15 Primary.

Following is the letter McMaster, on behalf of Taxpayers United Michigan Foundation, sent to Michigan Secretary of State Land to cause the State of Michigan to OFFICIALLY DE-CERTIFY THE JANUARY 15 ELECTION BECAUSE IT WAS UNCONSTITUTIONAL, AND TO DESTROY ALL RESULTING PUBLIC RECORDS BECAUSE THEY ARE PERMANENTLY NULL AND VOID.

 Michigan Secretary of State
   Terri Lynn Land and Director of Michigan Bureau of Elections Christopher Thomas 430 W. Allegan St. 4th Fl. Lansing, MI 48918
   Tel. (517) 373-6800 Fax (517) 241-373-0727 May 2, 2008 SUBJECT: Request for urgent meeting of Michigan Board of State Canvassers
   

We grassroot taxpayers observed the February 4, 2008 3-0 vote taken on the "staff recommendation of the Bureau of Elections" to "Certify" the Michigan Open Presidential Primary Election of January 15, 2008 which was ruled unconstitutional by Federal District Judge Nancy Edmonds on March 26, 2008 in the 21-page Opinion and Order she issued in Detroit.

The April 17, 2008 4-page letter from Melissa Malerman, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Coordinator, Legal and Regulatory Services Administration, Michigan Department of State, cites several quotes in law from Judge Edmonds' Order in her response to Mr. Jon Hansen's request to obtain access to the names, addresses and Qualified Voter File records compiled on January 15, 2008.

Of specific note are your references:

The Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan recently held that subsection (5) and (6) of Section 615(c) of Public Act 52 of 2007 are unconstitutional. By operation of the non-severability clause of PA 52 of 2007, the primary election and the collection and compilation of the party preference information in connection with that primary are invalid, inoperable, and without effect. Invalid means not legally or factually valid, null; "null" means having no legal force, invalid ... being or amounting to nothing; nil; lacking; nonexistent.

Therefore, by operation of law, the January 2008 primary cannot be regarded as an official function such that the party preference information collected during the primary was "prepared" in the "performance of an official function" within the FOIA statute. Nor is the information currently being "possessed" or "retained" based on the performance of a presently valid, operable, or effective official function under PA of 2007. Accordingly, as the nature of the Department's duty with respect to this information has changed as a result of the non-severability clause having now taken effect, under the present circumstances that information does not qualify as a public record as defined by FOIA.

In the March 24, 2008 news release "Voter registration deadline nears for May 6 election; Residents also reminded of identification requirements at polls" issued by Terri Lynn Land, Secretary of State, you did not affirm the constitutional right of voting with a pictured driver's license is still reserved only for citizens of the United States, and not to illegal immigrants, migrant workers or foreign students who have legally obtained Michigan driver's licenses.

You may recall that we in Taxpayers United Michigan Foundation fought to defend the constitutional right to vote for only citizens of the United States by submitting Amicus Curiae Briefs in five state courts last fall, including the Michigan Supreme Court, and in my comments recorded during the February 4, 2008 public meeting in the State Capitol of the Board of State Canvassers.

And while the U.S. Supreme Court decided "Crawford vs. Marion County Election Board" (No. 07-21) on April 28, 2008 and upheld Indiana and Michigan's law requiring voters to show photo identification at their polling place, the 6-3 decision did not touch the constitutional requirement to be a U.S. citizen before voting in the U.S.

That and other constitutional issues raised by Taxpayers United regarding corruption of the Michigan Presidential Primary are of no consequence since Judge Edmonds permanently threw out the January 15 election on the single constitutional issue that it violated the secrecy of the ballot, and since state legislators wrote the law to be non-severable -- if one part is unconstitutional, the entire PA 52 of 2007 is invalid, null and void.

The need for a vote for De-Certification of the January 15 Primary by another vote of the Board of State Canvassers is reinforced by your April 21, 2008 news release: "Protecting voter privacy; Secretary Land prevents list of voters' party preferences from being revealed."

Perhaps you aren't aware of it but Mark Grebner, Hansen and crew have been bullying individual county clerks with FOIA demands and have already obtained and computerized thousands of voter lists compiled on January 15. Populous Macomb County for example.

De-certification will remove the penalties assessed by the Democratic and Republican National Committees in Washington DC and allow the Michigan Democratic Party's 156 Delegates (including 28 Super Delegates) to the Democrat National Convention this summer to be selected by caucus as they have been in previous years, and the 60 (no Super Delegates) Republicans to also be chosen Delegates by caucus.

Obama will be on the caucus ballot this time. McCain can convert Republican seats won 2-1 by Mitt Romney on January 15 to his own cause.

How soon can you schedule a meeting of the Board of State Canvassers in our Michigan Capitol Building in Lansing? My testimony is ready.

 Sincerely, Bill McMaster, State Chairman (Volunteer) Taxpayers United
   Michigan Foundation 

(Taxpayers United Michigan Foundation (TUMF), now tax deductible under IRS Code 501 (c) (3) education in the public interest, is an outgrowth of Taxpayers United founded in 1976 to muster statewide support for the successful 1978 Headlee Tax Limitation Amendment. For 31 years, Bill McMaster has continued as State Chairman (Volunteer) building TUMF into Michigan's largest non-partisan, non-profit grassroots taxpayer organization defending citizen rights under our U.S. and Michigan Constitutions.)

Historical anecdote from Bureau of Elections, MI Department of State:

Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company in Detroit, won the Michigan REPUBLICAN Presidential Primary in 1916 and the Michigan DEMOCRATIC Presidential Primary in 1924.

SOURCE Taxpayers United Michigan Foundation

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