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Group: Detroiters thought they were backing affirmative action initiative.

More than 98 percent of Detroiters who signed a petition to ban gender and racial preferences in Michigan may have been duped into thinking they were signing a ballot initiative for affirmative action, activists claimed Thursday. Organizers for By Any Means Necessary, a national coalition to defend affirmative action policies, said they would file a complaint Monday with the Board of State Canvassers outlining the allegations in the hope of keeping it off the ballot. "This just shows there is growing fraud and deceit in this attack against affirmative action," Luke Massie , national co-chairman of By Any Means Necessary, said during a rally Thursday attended by about 25 supporters outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center. In early January, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative submitted more than 508,000 signatures to the Board of State Canvassers to place on the November 2006 ballot a proposed constitutional amendment banning public agencies and universities from granting preferential treatment based on race, color, ethnicity, national origin or sex. At least 317,757 valid signatures of Michigan voters are needed. State spokeswoman Kelly Chesney said the petitions should be reviewed by next month. Polls have suggested a majority of Michiganians would vote in favor of the ban. Shanta Driver, an attorney for By Any Means Necessary, said the group reviewed a sample of 501 petition signatures and zeroed in on 87 Detroiters. They interviewed more than half the Detroiters, and 98 percent of those indicated they thought the petition was to support affirmative action. "This is systematic deceit," Driver said. The group has gathered 57 affidavits from signers, as well as five from petition circulators, stating their allegations. Californian, Ward Connerly, one of the most prominent opponents of race-based preferences in America, and his groups have provided the bulk of the money used for the Michigan petition drive, according to state disclosure forms. [more]