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The respondents to the petition, the Board Of State Canvassers, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Director of Elections Jonathan Brater, argue in their response — which was requested on Tuesday by Justice Brett Kavanaugh — that the process of a referendum like this is a state-created right as opposed to one guaranteed by the First Amendment. “Federal courts have previously recognized that such processes are not entitled to the same protection as the right to vote,” the state response continues. “To the contrary, many courts have held that private citizens lack a constitutional right to propose referenda or initiatives for any ballot, federal or state.” Board of State Canvassers deadlocks on citizens-only voting measure, setting up court fight They also add that the relief requested by the sponsors — an injunction that would force the state to place the referendum on the November general election ballot — would be granting the applicants “all the relief they could ever recover for their claims,” but that the application does “little to justify such an unusual request, other than to repeat the number of signatures they gathered—without acknowledging or contending with the high number of signatures that were found to be invalid.” Ballots must be finalized by Sept.
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