Is swing state Michigan a lock for the Democrats?  While professional polls may lean that way, a citizen's initiative indicates otherwise.  Governor Gretchen Whitmer's severe lockdown measures are considered logical and popular by Democrats and the punditry, but they've so upset thousands of residents that a petition is circulating to eliminate them.

"Stand Up Michigan" is now reporting more than 200,000 certified signatures in about four weeks.  On the podcast The Lantern, the state's Senate majority leader, Republican Mike Shirkey, said there's a lot of excitement.

This is all credit to the folks of Michigan who understood and wouldn't take the vague leadership and demands coming out of the executive office during this crisis we've endured.  The people of Michigan have stood up based on your encouragement and exhortations and have banded together to generate a level of energy never before seen in Michigan.  That's the recipe for what's produced these unbelievable results in such a short period of time.  I predicted the first hundred thousand would take three weeks but took about two weeks and I think we'll see the next hundred in ten days.

Michigan law allows for a "Citizen Initiative" where 340,000 certified signatures can put an issue before the Legislature, which can put it on the ballot for a vote or pass into law.  The state's Republican Legislature has promised to do so.  The process circumvents the governor.  The group says its petition accuracy is about 92%, and its goal is half a million signatures — enough so that Michigan's Democrat secretary of state will be compelled to use a sample to approve it, rather than dragging her feet with an actual count.

Stand Up Michigan says petition-signers are more afraid of the unexpected consequences of the lockdown than of COVID.  Shirkey indicated that the state's suicide hotline has experienced an 1,800-percent increase in calls.  Michigan residents can get a petition here.

Image: Ken Lund via Flickr (cropped).