The Headlines
With only six days until voting starts in Michigan (and 46 days until voting ends), Voters Not Politicians is focused on making sure voters know that democracy is on the ballot beyond the top of the ticket.
We’ve launched a massive grassroots campaign to reach voters across the state with the message to “Flip It, Don’t Skip It” and to let voters know which Michigan Supreme Court candidates have earned VNP’s Pro-Voter approval because of their commitment to a strong, healthy democracy.
The Details
- Michigan Supreme Court decisions can impact the trajectory of our democracy.
- In 2018, a split Michigan Supreme Court decision compelled the Board of State Canvassers (BOSC) to place our independent redistricting amendment on the ballot for voters.
- In 2022, in a 5-2 decision, the court put Proposal 22-2, which VNP supported with more than 170,000 volunteer signatures, on the ballot after the BOSC deadlocked.
- And just this year, in another split decision, the court overturned the anti-democratic legislative scheme known as “adopt-and-amend”.
- No matter what happens at the top of the ticket, justices will be responsible for resolving legal challenges to Michigan’s election processes, election results, and voter eligibility. If the Project 2025 roadmap is implemented, our state’s highest court will be especially important in protecting voters.
- Justice Kyra Harris Bolden and Kimberly Thomas earned Voters Not Politicians’ Pro-Voter, Pro-Democracy approval for the Michigan Supreme Court.
- Justice Kyra Harris Bolden wrote the majority opinion upholding rules for poll challengers, sided with the majority to overturn anti-democratic “adopt-and-amend” scheme, and has consistently demonstrated commitment to protecting voting rights.
- Kimberly Thomas is a law professor at the University of Michigan Law School. She believes in upholding the laws of our state including the laws protecting the right to vote and fair elections and the right of Michiganders to have their vote counted.
- Many voters don’t vote their entire ballot, especially the nonpartisan section that includes Supreme Court justices.
- In 2022, there was a drop-off of over 1 million voters between the gubernatorial race at the top of the ticket and the nonpartisan Supreme Court justices on the back of the ballot.
- In the 2020 presidential election, the drop-off was even larger, with almost 2 million voters leaving the Supreme Court section blank.
- Many voters also don’t realize that voting straight ticket does not cast a vote in the nonpartisan or ballot initiative sections.
- Voters Not Politicians has already begun implementing our multi-prong campaign to reach tens of thousands of voters before Election Day.
- On all doors and at all events, we will focus on educating voters so that they pledge to complete their entire ballot–back to front, bottom to top, and track voters so that we can follow up and ensure they do so.
- Walk and tabling literature will feature a QR code to sign an electronic commit-to-vote pledge which will be texted back to voters before they intend to vote along with reminders about their options for voting and a link to MichiganEarlyVote.com.
- We will organize volunteers to table at community events across the state and coordinate with student groups to reach young voters.
- Volunteers will also be activated to engage in advocacy while circulating at events with large numbers of attendees.
- Through the separately funded Voters Action Committee, in our targeted House Districts, we will be doing door to door canvassing, phone banking, and text banking for the pro-voter Michigan Supreme Court candidates.
What’s Next
Volunteers will be out in their communities for the next six weeks having conversations with voters and spreading the word about the importance of voting for the Supreme Court.
By informing voters about the power of a pro-voter Supreme Court, and the havoc that election deniers and conspiracy theories could bring to the bench, we will secure a Supreme Court that consistently reaffirms the political power of all Michiganders.
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