Supporters of Voters Not Politicians know that our grassroots movement is active across the state: From Marquette to Monroe, as we like to say 😉. But many Michiganders might not realize that our commitment to serve all voters includes those who live in the farthest reaches of our great state.
Valorie Troesch is a long-time VNP volunteer from the Keweenaw Peninsula who is continuing her commitment to strengthening democracy by educating her local community as a Prop 22-2 Voter Educator and building local grassroots power with Democracy Academy.
Valorie first joined Voters Not Politicians in 2017 at the very beginning of our grassroots movement as a regional leader for the western UP, and she helped lead VNP to success in our campaigns to end partisan gerrymandering in 2018 and protect voting rights in 2022. But she hasn’t stopped there.
I was a regional (western UP) leader on the VNP anti-gerrymandering and the Promote the Vote proposal initiatives – organizing volunteers and gathering petition signatures. I also worked on the Democracy Academy committee in 2023 to develop and deliver a pilot workshop on increasing local voter turnout, and continue to work with this program. I worked on the Clerk Engagement project and have met several times with our County Clerk. I presented several Prop 22-2 workshops in the Houghton and Baraga County areas to educate the public on these major changes to Michigan’s voting laws.
As a retired attorney, Valorie has plenty of volunteer opportunities to keep her busy, including a local women’s shelter, the Isle Royale National Park Archives, a non-profit that weatherizes homes for low-income seniors, and the Upper Peninsula Commission For Area Progress (UPCAP) Conflict Resolution mediation program, to name a few. But she still remains dedicated to the pro-democracy work of VNP, and sees the importance of VNP being willing to take on the challenges no one else will.Â
VNP has taken on issues that people largely thought were impossible to resolve, such as gerrymandering. VNP proved that voters have a lot of power, and that power can be harnessed in order to make important changes. VNP is taking on issues that no one else does. It now has established its credibility in Michigan and is a leader on voter related issues.
As someone who has been with VNP since the beginning, Valorie can attest to the passion which fueled our initial 2018 campaign, and brought thousands of everyday Michiganders together as volunteers to end gerrymandering. But even Valorie did not anticipate the longevity of our pro-democracy movement.
Honestly, I suppose the biggest surprise about volunteering with Voters Not Politicians is that VNP is still here. After 2018, many of us thought that the anti-gerrymandering initiative was a one-off. But it wasn’t, and we are still here and people recognize – and rely on – VNP as a force for change in Michigan.
But there’s still one more thing about volunteering with VNP that continues to surprise and inspire Valorie:
Volunteering with an organization like VNP truly empowers the volunteers. I have worked with volunteers who thought they could not ask for signatures, for example. And yet, because they believed in the work, they went out, stood at farmer’s markets and other public venues, and did it. And made a difference. That’s the remarkable thing.
