By Amanda Lammon, State Field Director | May 3, 2022
Ask anyone: Voters Not Politicians volunteers are the best volunteers! Since getting petitions back in hand our volunteers have braved snow and hail and collected more than 20,000 signatures.
(Pictured above: Lisa Jevens and Marie Knoerl going all out to gather signatures)
As soon as VNP joined the Promote the Vote 2022 coalition, VNP volunteers picked up their clipboards and hit the pavement. In a few short months:
- More than 115 volunteers from all over Michigan have stepped up to a leadership role;
- Volunteers made 6,000 recruitment calls; and
- 1,700 volunteers signed up to collect signatures for this campaign.
We’re on track to meet our goals for this campaign, and even exceed them, and this is all thanks to our amazing volunteers!
Across the state there are also dozens of volunteers who have signed up to help with data entry, supplies, and returning petitions. We have an online training module (complete with a quiz!) to help volunteers learn the rules for petition circulation in Michigan, and we conduct policy training to make sure every volunteer is informed and can answer questions about what’s in the Promote the Vote 2022 proposal.
There is a job for every volunteer and you can join our volunteer army by signing up here!
(Pictured above: A voter signs the Promote the Vote 2022 Petition at Community Unitarian Universalists of Brighton)
For a little insight into just how impressive Voters Not Politicians volunteers are, let’s look at the life of a petition.
Once petition sheets are printed, they are picked up in Southeast Michigan by our state supply coordinator. They are divided up to be sent out across the state according to the number of volunteers that we have signed up in each area. The state supply coordinator then works with not only each of our volunteer leaders but also all of the volunteers that have signed up to help with supply distribution. These volunteers include not only those who are willing to hold onto supplies for us but also those who are willing to transport those supplies across the state, all the way to the furthest reaches of the Upper Peninsula!
Once supplies are distributed to the various areas of our state, our volunteer leaders work to distribute them out to volunteers. We’ve had volunteers collect from a range of one signature all the way up to over 350 signatures thus far. Every week our volunteers turn in their petition sheets whether they are full or not. Petition sheets are then handed over to our data entry volunteers to give us a count of how many signatures we’ve collected thus far. After data entry, petitions are sorted and passed off to our petition return volunteers who box them up and turn them in so that they can be validated before we submit them in July.
Without every one of our volunteers we wouldn’t be able to get this done! Whether they are out in public collecting signatures and educating Michiganders, or behind-the-scenes entering data and making sure our supply lines are operating, volunteers are doing essential work. So a huge shout out to all of our volunteers who are working hard to protect Michigan voters for years to come.
