One of two statewide proposals on the upcoming November ballot, Proposal 10-2 is reconsidering the state’s current criteria for who can and cannot run for elected office or work in certain public positions.

If approved, the proposal would amend the state’s constitution by prohibiting people from holding future elected, appointed or public employment if they have committed a crime in the preceding 20 years. The crime has to have involved dishonesty, deceit, fraud or a breach of public trust related to that person's official capacity in an elected or governmental position.

The new legislation comes after Michigan government officials Kwame Kilpatrick and Monica Conyers, among others, received criminal charges in recent years for felonies committed while serving the city of Detroit.

State Senator Tupac Hunter (D–Detroit), in an interview with The Associated Press, said the proposal is about “sending an anti-corruption message to officeholders and policymakers statewide.”

In a Sept. 23 press release issued by his office, Hunter — who sponsored the proposal when it was in development in the Senate — said the proposal will give voters the chance to “clean up government.”

“Proposal 10-2 will give voters the chance to…say, once and for all, that they will not tolerate politicians who use their office or their jobs at the expense of the people they serve,” Hunter said in the release.

Senator Mark Jansen (R–Grand Rapids) has also voiced his support for the proposal, calling to attention the importance of integrity in public officials.

“Integrity is of the utmost importance for our public officials who have the responsibility to impact public policy or spend taxpayer dollars,” he said in the Sept. 23 press release.

Vincent Hutchings, a professor in the University’s political science department and a research professor at the Institute for Social Research, said he doubts there are a large number of voters who are particularly interested in the issue at hand.

“It seems to me that there’s a concern out there that the people who are currently in office are engaged in corrupt actions,” he said, “…not that people who are guilty will get into office.”

Hutchings, who has studied voting issues, added that the general public is probably mostly uneducated about the proposal.

“People aren’t combing the Internet to find out what sort of initiatives are on the ballot,” he said. “They’re concerned about far more weighty matters.”

The proposal, if approved, will take effect on Dec. 18.