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Mason — Voters Not Politicians, the upstart organization that overhauled Michigan’s redistricting process in 2018, is now using its network of volunteers to boost a campaign to recognize new voting rights in the state constitution.
Supporters of Voters Not Politicians have gathered more than 160,000 petition signatures for Promote the Vote 2022, which aims to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot this fall that would require nine days of early in-person voting and provide a right for voters to verify their identity with photo ID or a signed statement.
The Voters Not Politicians’ signatures will be in addition to ones collected by paid gatherers. To make the ballot, Promote the Vote 2022 has to submit 425,059 valid signatures to the Bureau of Elections by 5 p.m. Monday.
Mary Brown, 70, of Aurelius Township in southern Ingham County is among the Voters Not Politicians volunteers who’ve been circulating Promote the Vote 2022 petitions. She plans to be in Lansing in the coming days when the campaign turns in its signatures, she said.
Brown was gathering more signatures on Tuesday afternoon outside The Daily Scoop ice cream shop in downtown Mason, the county seat of Ingham County.
“We need to hold the politicians responsible for what we’re asking them to do,” Brown, a retired college professor, said when asked why she’s involved with the Promote the Vote 2022 effort.
Brown said she’s collected about 400 signatures, including taking petition sheets to her book club.
“This is the one that deals with your voting rights,” Brown said as she sought the signature of a woman who was entering the ice cream business. “We’re trying to establish in your state constitution your right to vote.”
The woman had already signed the petition previously, she said.
If it makes the ballot, the Promote the Vote 2022 proposal could give new energy to the intense debate over how laws should be changed after the November 2020 presidential election, in which supporters of Republican Donald Trump and the former president himself have repeatedly made unproved claims of widespread voter fraud in Michigan.
Trump’s supporters have pushed for new photo identification requirements, banning absentee ballot drop boxes and limiting outside funding for election administration activities.
The Promote the Vote 2022 amendment, however, would do the opposite on those topics. It would require state-funded postage for absentee applications and ballots and state-funded absentee ballot drop boxes. It would allow donations to fund elections but would mandate that they be disclosed.
Likewise, the amendment would safeguard a current state policy that allows people to sign an affidavit verifying their identity if they don’t have a photo ID with them when show up to vote.
Mark Fisk, spokesman for Promote the Vote 2022, said he was confident the campaign will have enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
“Voters Not Politicians and our other partner organizations who have deployed volunteers to gather signatures have been instrumental in Promote the Vote 2022’s signature drive,” Fisk said.
A Republican-backed group called Secure MI Vote has been circulating petitions to mandate photo ID through an initiated law. Jamie Roe, spokesman for Secure MI Vote, called the Promote the Vote 2022 proposal “garbage.”
“We want secure elections. And they want unsecure elections,” Roe said.
Secure MI Vote is hoping to gather enough signatures to get its proposal before the Republican-controlled Legislature. But that effort could be overruled by the Promote the Vote 2022 amendment.
Voters Not Politicians
Voters Not Politicians launched as a grassroots organization ahead of the 2018 election in a bid to take the power to redraw legislative district lines out of the hands of lawmakers.
The group, which famously formed after a Facebook post from one of its eventual leaders, relied on volunteers to gather about 400,000 signatures, got its proposal to create a nonpartisan citizens redistricting commission on the ballot and successfully advocated for its passage in November 2018.
Since then, Voters Not Politicians has stayed involved in state politics, pushing for new disclosure requirements for the state Legislature, opposing some Republican-backed attempts to change Michigan voting laws in the wake of the 2020 election and joining the coalition backing Promote the Vote 2022.
That coalition also includes the American Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters of Michigan and the NAACP, among other groups.
“Our mission is to strengthen democracy in Michigan,” said Jamie Lyons-Eddy, deputy director of Voters Not Politicians. “There is no democracy without voting.”
More than 2,000 Voters Not Politicians volunteers have gathered signatures for Promote the Vote 2022, Lyons-Eddy said.
“I am very optimistic that we will get on the ballot,” she said.
‘Spread the word’
In 2018, Promote the Vote backed a constitutional amendment to allow for no-reason absentee voting in Michigan. That amendment passed with 67% support.
Promote the Vote 2022 formed in January. The group had raised about $3.7 million by the beginning of May with about $1.6 million coming from the liberal nonprofit Sixteen Thirty Fund, which is based in Washington, D.C., according to campaign finance disclosures.
While gathering signatures, Brown said Michiganians have voiced support for the idea of having nine days of in-person early voting during which they can know for sure their vote was counted even if they cast it ahead of Election Day.
As for unproven claims of fraud in the last election, Brown said she’s optimistic the battleground state can move past them.
Brown said she’s heard about dead voters and fraudulent votes while gathering signatures. But her response has been to mention the more than 200 election audits that have been done in Michigan and the report from the Republican-controlled state Senate Oversight Committee, which upheld Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.
Voters Not Politicians wants to work on informing people about the election process ahead of November, Brown said. The group’s volunteers plan to send out text messages and organize tables at events to advocate for Promote the Vote 2022.
“We’re going to just do our best to try to spread the word,” Brown said.
The group has some experience discussing complicated political matters after gathering support for a redistricting proposal four years earlier.
Shawn Sodman, the owner of The Daily Scoop in Mason, has allowed Voters Not Politicians to gather signatures at his business. He does it because the group seems to be focused on improving democracy, he said.
“It’s about putting the people back in charge,” Sodman said.
cmauger@detroitnews.com
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