In the face of determined opposition, Connerly has failed to secure enough signatures to put his initiatives on the ballot in Oklahoma, Missouri and Arizona and is now down to two states. Connerly’s 2008 effort grew out of his successful campaign in 2006 to pass the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which banned affirmative action. Although he was able to get the Michigan initiative on the ballot, the effort was marked by charges of extensive irregularities in the signature gathering process.

The Michigan Civil Rights Commission stated in a report that Connerly’s signature gatherers engaged in a patterns of misrepresentation and deception: “Two notable and distressing truths emerge from the hundreds of pages of testimony included in the report. First, the instances of misrepresentation regarding the content of the MCRI ballot language are not isolated or random. Acts of misrepresentation occurred across the state, in multiple locations in the same communities, and over long periods of time. Second, the impact of these acts of deception is substantial. It appears that the acts documented in the report represent a highly coordinated, systematic strategy involving many circulators and most importantly, thousands of voters.” Click here to download the report.

Arthur J. Tarnow, the U.S. district court judge hearing a complaint about irregularities in Connerly’s signature gathering efforts in Michigan declared that “MCRI engaged in systematic voter fraud by telling voters that they were signing a petition supporting affirmative action.”