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Jennifer Gratz, plaintiff in the case against U-M's affirmative action policies, answers some of the 200 to 300 e-mails about the case she receives daily.Michigan voters want affirmative action ban
Residents also favor end to late-term abortion
About 100 demonstrators marched Monday at U-M in support of affirmative action, including Shawn Moton, 11, of Detroit.
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At the start of what promises to be an emotional clash over racial preferences in Michigan, voters clearly side with advocates of a ballot proposal that would ban affirmative action in government hiring and college admissions, a Detroit News poll shows.
More than 60 percent of voters also favor a measure to prohibit so-called partial birth abortions — although chances are that proposal never will get to the ballot.
When read language from a petition on the affirmative action issue, 64 percent of poll respondents said they favored the ban; 23 percent were opposed.
The News’ survey of 400 registered voters was conducted Jan. 7-12 by Mitchell Research & Communications of East Lansing.
“Affirmative action should be banned because we’re all Americans; we shouldn’t be classified by race,” said poll participant Marvin Taylor, a retired Ford worker from Southgate.
Thomas Diggs, a Detroiter in the information technology field, will vote against the proposal if it gets on the ballot. Earlier this month, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative started circulating petitions to place the issue before voters on Nov. 2.
“Affirmative action is an integral part of today’s society and will continue to be until the issues we wrestle with along racial lines are resolved,” Diggs said.
A poll breakdown shows support for the ballot initiative cuts across age groups, gender, religion and union and nonunion households. The proposal is supported by about two-thirds of voters in the suburbs and outstate, but is opposed 47 percent to 42 percent in Detroit.
Survey respondents were split along racial lines, with 67 percent of whites in favor and 19 percent opposed, while a small sample of black voters showed 47 percent opposed and 45 percent in favor.
Respondents of all party affiliations backed the affirmative action ban, but the proposal won far more support among Republicans (77 percent in favor) than Democrats (51 percent in favor). Among independent voters, 59 percent supported the initiative.
News pollster Steve Mitchell said the numbers indicate that if the affirmative action prohibition gets on the ballot, it probably will win.
“Opinions on this issue are very deeply held, and I think it will be very difficult to defeat this if it gets on the ballot,” Mitchell said. He said he expects the support is even stronger than the poll indicates.
“Generally, there’s about a 7 percent fudge factor on racial issues because people don’t like to tell pollsters an answer that might be perceived as racist,” he said. “I think support could actually be as high as 70 percent.”
Diverse opinions
Jennifer Gratz, executive director of the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, was encouraged by the poll results.
“Poll after poll tell us that people don’t want racial preferences, they want to be treated fairly and they want to be treated equally,” said Gratz, a 26-year-old University of Michigan graduate who was a plaintiff in the case against the school’s affirmative action policies decided last summer by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The high court ruled that using race as a factor in the law school application process was a constitutional means of achieving diversity. But in a split decision, the court struck down the school’s undergraduate admission process that gave extra points to students of color.
Retired Brigadier Gen. Mike Rice, former deputy director of the Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, said he expected poll numbers to indicate support for the constitutional amendment before the education campaign begins. Rice heads a coalition of business, government, academic, civil rights, labor and other groups opposed to the amendment. The coalition is making an all-out effort to keep the issue off the ballot.
“It points out that we have a lot of work to do in educating folks,” Rice said. “We need to tell voters just don’t sign something because somebody puts a clipboard under your nose in a shopping mall.”
Opponents say the affirmative action ban will lead to consequences most voters haven’t considered. For example, it would be difficult for a municipality to diversify its police force to reflect the makeup of the community, Rice said.
Demonstrators march
On Monday, about a hundred demonstrators marched in frigid weather at U-M in support of affirmative action. Cyril Cordor, a local organizer for the group By Any Means Necessary, charged that promoters of the ballot proposal are using deception to gain signatures. The way the petitions are worded, Cordor said, Michiganians might not realize they’re being asked to turn back the clock on racial progress.
“It doesn’t even use the words affirmative action,” said Cordor, a 22-year-old senior from Detroit. “That’s why there’s a legal battle to get the petition (language) changed. Our emphasis is to keep it from getting on the ballot.”
The Michigan effort was launched by University of California Regent Ward Connerly, who won passage of a similar plan in his state and in Washington state. Both sides plan to spend millions on a TV ad campaign.
Petition drive
Backers of a proposal to halt late-term abortions intend to gather 254,000 petition signatures by late May. Under Michigan law, a petition drive with that level of support doesn’t have to wait for the fall ballot. It can go before the state Legislature, and, if approved by a simple majority, will become law — without the governor’s signature.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm vetoed a similar proposal drafted and overwhelmingly passed by the Legislature last year. She said there were not sufficient safeguards to protect a woman’s health.
The votes clearly are there in the House and Senate to approve the ban. Ed Rivet, legislative director of Michigan Right to Life, said 63 of the 110 House members and 22 of the 38 Senators already have signed the petition.
“So, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion we’ll have the votes. We don’t expect to be on the ballot,” Rivet said.
Right to Life used a similar strategy to get around a governor’s veto in 1987 when a petition drive resulted in a ban on Medicaid abortions for poor women in Michigan. Again in 1990, a petition effort led to required parental consent for minors seeking an abortion.
The issue would go to voters only if the required petition signatures are gathered and the Legislature fails to approve the bill.
The legislation defines the moment of birth as when any part of a fetus is expelled from the body. That occurs during a partial birth abortion, an infrequently used procedure.
Broad support
The poll shows 61 percent of registered voters in favor of the partial birth abortion prohibition and 31 percent opposed. The legislation draws clear support of all age groups, both men and women, union and nonunion households as well as Republicans, independents and Democrats.
Predictably, four in five pro-life voters back the measure, but pro-choice supporters are nearly evenly divided, with 45 percent opposed and 43 percent in favor.
“I think it should be banned on moral and religious grounds,” said Rosemary Timmins, a 58-year-old school nurse from Whiteford Township near the Ohio border.
But Anthony Shakir, a 37-year-old musician from Detroit, said all decisions about abortion “should be between the woman, the child’s father and God. Everybody else should stay out of it.”
Detroit News Staff Writer Gary Heinlein contributed to this report. You can reach Charlie Cain at (517) 371-3660 or ccain@detnews.com.
Cyril Cordor, an organizer for the group By Any Means Necessary who demonstrated at U-M Monday, says ballot proposal promoters are using deception to gain signatures.
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