Opponents of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder have received clearance to start their latest recall campaign. The Washtenaw County Election Commission voted 2-1 Monday to approve the language on a petition brought by the group Michigan Rising, CBS Detroit reports.
Michigan Rising says Snyder should be recalled because of his support for emergency managers, push for cuts to schools and implementing a tax policy favorable to corporations.
Last week, Snyder spokesman Ken Silfven told The Huffington Post the governor believed he could survive a recall attempt.
"People put their trust in the governor because he'd make the tough but necessary decisions to move Michigan forward," Silfven said.
Petitioners need about 807,000 valid signatures, a quarter of the votes cast in the previous gubernatorial election, to place the recall on the ballot.
If Snyder is removed, Lt. Gov. Brian Calley would replace him as acting governor until a special election could be held in February 2013.
Last year, the group Michigan Citizens United launched a similar recall effort but failed to get on the ballot after collecting only about 500,000 signatures.
Michigan Rising spokeswoman Marion Townsend of Dearborn believes conditions are better for a recall this year.
"There has been a lot more that Gov. Snyder has done to basically alienate whole groups and communities of people since last year when we started our campaign," she said at the election commission hearing, AnnArbor.com reports. "We've also got a year under our belt. We learned a lot over the past year about how this works, how to organize -- we've got our grass roots going on."
Michigan Rising plans to kick off its campaign at a May 5 rally in front of the capitol building in Lansing.