The move was hailed as a win by Protect Michigan Jobs, the union- and union contractor-backed group that is fighting the petition. An initial sampling of 535 signatures submitted last month by Protect Michigan Taxpayers - a front group for the Associated Builders and Contractors- Michigan - were found by the state to have only 370 valid signatures. That was three valid signatures short of approval per a decades-old formula for examining petitions used by the Board of State Canvassers (BSC).

During the Jan. 30 hearing, attorneys for Protecting Michigan Taxpyers used blown-up versions of petition signatures, to try to convince the BSC that "sloppy handwriting' and wrong dates shouldn't invalidate some of the signatures. But ultimately the BSC ruled that it would upend precedent if they ignored the recommendation to pull additional petition samples after the findings were made and submitted by examiners at the Michigan Bureau of Elections.

"All we wanted out of this hearing was for the signature analysis process to continue, according to the rules and precedent set by the state," said Patrick Devlin, secretary-treasurer of the Michigan Building and Construction Trades Council. "Protect Michigan Taxpayers was talking about how the count was close enough for approval, but they obviously have a history of submitting questionable petition signatures to the state. So, the state and our team will look at the greater sample of 4,000 signatures, and hopefully it will show they were sloppy in collecting those names, too, and invalidate this whole process."

A similar petition drive sponsored by the ABC/PMT in 2015 to repeal the state's prevailing wage law was tossed out by the state Board of Canvassers because 43 percent of the signatures they sampled were invalid, due to irregularities like the presence of multiple signatures from the same person or signatures by unregistered voters.

If an examination of the additional sampling of 4,000 names finds sufficient valid signatures - a process that could take several weeks - and there are no additional issues, then the names will be presented to the Board of Canvassers for approval. If they approve the signatures, then the issue of prevailing wage repeal goes to the state Legislature for approval. 

The building trades unions are asking members to contact their lawmakers and urge them to vote against prevailing wage repeal. If the Legislature votes for repeal, then the matter is settled, Michigan's prevailing wage law would be rescinded.

And if that happens, in a parallel universe, building trades unions and their contractors/associations are currently sponsoring a petition drive that would reinstate a new prevailing wage law, the Construction Workers Fair Wage Act. If the effort garners more than 252,000 valid signatures, prevailing wage could be reinstated via a November statewide ballot.