Our fight for democracy is never done. Michigan citizens voted in 2018 to replace partisan gerrymandering with the establishment of a nonpartisan redistricting committee, a step forward in election reform. In 2022, 60 percent of voters approved a constitutional amendment to protect the security of elections while making sure that voting was easy for eligible voters. But that doesn’t mean that democratic rule and fair elections are now safe in our state.

Republican politicians made a new push in the Michigan House with HJR B (similar to the SAVE Act in Washington), which would add burdensome requirements to the 2022 amendment. Fortunately they could not muster the two-thirds majority required to pass it. Now the politicians are attempting an end run by getting citizens to sign a petition to put their amendment on the ballot.

This is where the fight is now. We need to do what we can to ensure they do not gather enough signatures. Anyone has a right to gather signatures, and there are rules for what you can and cannot do to prevent people from signing. You can read the rules on this ACLU webpage. 

You can also visit VotersNotPolticians to find out more about what you can do to keep the initiative off the ballot. Share this information with family and friends and ask them to spread the word as well. We don’t want the protections for fair elections that we voted for to be taken away from us!

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash