Strong communities are the key to a strong and powerful democracy, and we’re working to help achieve that in Michigan. Voters Not Politicians is building strong volunteer groups across the state and providing the training and education they need to feel empowered. Many of those volunteers are taking what they’ve learned into their own communities and are making a real difference, whether it’s advocating for local referendums, running for local office, or starting community organizations.
Building relationships with community leaders and partners is a powerful way for Voters Not Politicians to create lasting change throughout the state.
By offering organizing and material support, we can reach members of the community with vital election information, combat disinformation with trusted sources, and form powerful coalitions that focus on civic engagement and education.
The Voters Education Fund’s banner program is the My City Votes program, where we work with community leaders and partners throughout the election cycle to support civic engagement and education. With Michigan’s evolving election laws and voting rights, it’s vital to reach eligible voters across the state, especially in communities that have been historically disenfranchised, to ensure they have accurate, up-to-date, and easy-to-understand information about voting.
We also work with coalition partners to expand our impact in the community through further education modules that enhance community awareness and participation in democratic processes.
Scroll to read how Voters Not Politicians has expanded our Community Building efforts to engage Michiganders and strengthen our state’s democracy.
In 2017, Voters Not Politicians had to collect hundreds of thousands of signatures from registered voters to get our proposal to end partisan gerrymandering on the ballot using a 100% volunteer force of trained circulators.
We needed a way to reach volunteers across the state with training, materials, and updates quickly. Soon, our Regional Organizing Model was created, which focused on organizing at the local level.
This community-focused approach allowed volunteer teams to organize in a way that worked for their regions and communities while making sure the organization had a powerful communication channel.
Not only did we collect more than 425,000 signatures to get Proposal 18-2 on the ballot, but we collected signatures from every single county in the state, all thanks to Regional Organizing.
Voters Not Politicians continues to use this same approach in most of our programs and campaigns because it helps empower volunteers and supports them to build powerful communities with their neighbors.
Many of the original volunteer teams created in 2017 still exist today. Volunteers are taking what they’ve learned into their own communities and are making a real difference, whether it’s advocating for local referendums, running for local office, or starting community organizations.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it became clear that voter education would be crucial. Michigan voters had new options to vote that kept them safe, like no-reason absentee voting paired with expanded vote-by-mail options and secure drop boxes. However, at the same time, massive waves of misinformation were making their way to Michigan, leaving voters unsure and confused.
The Voters Education Fund partnered with community leaders and Detroit Votes to accelerate voter education and combat misinformation about voting options.
Detroit Votes 2020 was an integrated media and organizing campaign designed to generate a meaningful impact on voter turnout and voter registration in one of the country’s most critical electoral battlegrounds.
Detroit Votes’s voter education efforts in 2020 were broken down into three major buckets:
According to Vincent Hutchings, a political science professor at the University of Michigan, turnout in Detroit in 2020 was at record high numbers despite not surpassing the Obama-driven levels from 2008 or 2012.
The Voters Education Fund saw a need for intentional voter education programs in other Michigan cities and formed My City Votes, a community-focused voter education and engagement program that worked in communities that have been historically disenfranchised to ensure voters were getting accurate, timely, and useful information around elections.
The My City Votes program worked hand-in-hand with local clerks, mayors, and other trusted community leaders across the state to make sure that voters know their voting options and have confidence in local and state election systems.
When new voting options were approved by Michigan voters in 2022, we expanded our My City Votes curriculum to ensure voters knew about their options.
The My City Votes program has been an incredible success, which is why we’re expanding the program into a year-long community-building effort that is working in even more cities across the state.
My City Votes doesn’t use a one-size-fits-all approach.
Thanks to powerful relationships with community leaders, we’re building programmatic plans and curriculum based on the unique needs of each city that target each city’s opportunities and challenges.
Voters Not Politicians is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to strengthening democracy in Michigan by engaging citizens in projects and initiatives across the state. Contributions made to Voters Not Politicians are not tax deductible for federal income tax purposes.
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