during the early debate about the proposal shortly following the collection of signatures (508,282 submitted january 6, 2005), the michigan civil rights commission, a governmental body charged with investigating civil rights violations in the state of michigan, concluded an investigation of mcri and asserted that supporters of the mcri had committed widespread and systematic racially targeted fraud in their petition campaign to secure ballot access. the proponents of the initiative issued a multi-page refutation of the report, including a notation that it was never signed by the commission and alleging misconduct by the commission itself.