A state elections board has approved language for another petition seeking to recall Gov. Rick Snyder.
This is the first petition approved for circulation that cites the governor’s handling of the Flint water crisis as a reason to remove him from office. The board OK’d another petition earlier this month that references Snyder’s decision to move Michigan’s School Reform Office out of the Michigan Department of Education and place it under his direct control.
It would be an unprecedented, colossal task for either effort to gather the needed 790,000 valid signatures in 60 days to get on the ballot.
Snyder isn’t saying much about the recall efforts.
“That’s part of the democratic process,” he told reporters on Monday.
At the same time the recall language was approved Monday morning, Snyder released new state data that show one in ten sites in Flint is showing water lead levels that exceed the federal action limit.
The governor says the data are important because they come from 175 of the state’s new “sentinel sites” in Flint.
“These are the places where, as opposed to the residential tests you can otherwise see they were done by residents, these are more controlled circumstances. And these are the ones we would use as part of our official study,” said Snyder.
But he’s warning people not to read too much into the studies yet.
“The test results we’re releasing today is a start. It’s not time to draw conclusions.”
