Font size may keep issue off Mich. ballot

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LANSING, Mich., April 26 (UPI) -- Opponents of a contentious Michigan law say they may go to court to fight a decision by elections officials to keep a challenge to the law off the state ballot.

The four-member Board of State Canvassers voted 2-2 along party lines Thursday on the question of whether the repeal of the hotly contested emergency managers law should go before voters in November. The tie vote means the issue cannot be on the ballot, the Lansing (Mich.) State Journal reported.

The emergency managers law gives the state authority to dissolve local governments and school boards and invalidate labor contracts in case of financial distress.

Elections officials had determined there were enough petition signatures -- 203,238, or 40,000 more than necessary -- to put repeal of the law on the ballot. A group associated with state Republicans argued the petitions were out of compliance with state law because they used a too-small font size.

Supporters of the repeal petition said they will take the matter to the state Court of Appeals, the Detroit Free Press reported. They said a ruling to place the issue on the ballot would have suspended of the law, enacted in 2011 after Republican Rick Snyder was elected governor and the GOP won control of the state legislature.