FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: With Board of Canvassers approval, Rank MI Vote’s proposed constitutional amendment moves forward to signature-collection phase
LANSING, MI — Rank MI Vote is pleased to announce that today, June 27th, the Michigan Board of Canvassers officially approved the amendment language and 100-word summary for a proposed constitutional amendment to bring Ranked Choice Voting to Michigan. Approval from the Board of Canvassers enables Rank MI Vote to begin collecting signatures to qualify the amendment for the November 2026 general election. Signature collection efforts are slated to begin shortly.
When passed by voters, the amendment will implement Ranked Choice Voting for most federal and statewide elections in Michigan. Ranked Choice Voting is a simple upgrade to the voting process that allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference, guaranteeing that candidates must receive majority support to win.
“Of course, winning approval from the Board of Canvassers is a very proud day for Rank MI Vote as an organization,” said Rank MI Vote Executive Director Pat Zabawa. “Little more than a year ago, we were a group of maybe a dozen grassroots volunteers, doing all we could to pull off a series of town halls to educate Michiganders about Ranked Choice Voting. Just this week, we crossed the thresholds of 5,000 volunteer signups and 12,000 online supporters. To grow like that in just a year has been overwhelming, and the message couldn’t be clearer: Michigan is ready for a simple, practical reform that strengthens our democracy and gives voters more and better options at the ballot box.”
According to Pew Research, 65% of U.S. voters report dissatisfaction with the current political system, a factor Zabawa credits, in part, for Rank MI Vote’s volunteer recruitment successes.
“You’ve got nearly two in three voters saying they’re fed up with politics; they don’t need us to tell them that no one’s looking out for them anymore and political campaigns have become one scorched-earth ad blitz after another,” continued Zabawa. “But their ears perk up when we explain how Ranked Choice Voting changes political parties and candidates’ incentives, encouraging more positive, collegial, issues-focused campaigns. That message resonates strongly with just about everyone we talk to, and it’s starting to break through in a big way.”
Zabawa, however, believes Rank MI Vote’s motto of “vote your hopes, not your fears” is a message that’s breaking through right when voters are primed to receive it — though he acknowledges that recent headlines deserve an assist as well.
“Trump and Slotkin both winning Michigan last year with fewer than half the votes moved the needle for a number of Michigan voters. But when Mike Duggan declared his candidacy for governor as an independent, suddenly everyone’s speculating about the spoiler effect and which party Duggan will pull more votes from. People are really fired up about majority winners because it’s no longer some distant, theoretical possibility. It’s possible our next governor could win with less than 35% of the vote,” said Zabawa. “People have also really connected with the New York City mayoral primary. Cuomo got all the party elites and millions in Super PAC cash while Mamdani and Lander cross-endorsed each other and ran largely cooperative campaigns. There is no silver bullet to stop money in politics outright, but we are starting to see Ranked Choice Voting can help protect voters from the worst of its impacts. It has been incredible for us: we’ve said all along this small change in voting can lead to a profoundly positive change in the political system, and that’s exactly what we’ve seen.”
For that change to become the law of the land in Michigan, it will take the biggest signature collection operation in the state’s history. Michigan law dictates that this year, a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment must, within a six-month window, collect 446,198 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. Rank MI Vote campaign leaders remain confident and undaunted by that prospect.
“Today is the day the field team has been dreaming about. We’ve cleared the last procedural hurdle, and now we can grab our clipboards and start putting ink to paper, collecting signatures from Marquette to Monroe. Knowing that we’re now just six months of shoe leather and hard work away from qualifying for the ballot is incredibly energizing for our team,” said Rank MI Vote Deputy Field Director Kate Grabowsky. “Some campaigns might be nervous about needing to execute the biggest signature-collection effort in the state’s history, but that’s just extra motivation for us. We just crossed the 5,000 volunteer threshold this week, and they are eager to do whatever it takes to get this on the ballot next year.”
“Strategically, there are two ways to qualify for the ballot: money or hard work. We don’t have the seven- or eight-digit mega-donors that other campaigns have had, so we’re happy to rely on our hardworking volunteers. Voters Not Politicians’s 2017 anti-gerrymandering grassroots campaign is obviously the gold standard for how to do all-volunteer signature collection in a state as big as Michigan because they’re the only ones who have done it successfully — at least for the next six months,” said Grabowsky. “A lot of our volunteers cut their political campaign teeth working with that campaign, and we’ve been pretty intentional about improving on the strategy and process developed for them in 2017. We even have the same volunteer building our clipboards.”
Rank MI Vote has begun distributing education materials that emphasize the simplicity and ease of using Ranked Choice Voting, including this video explaining the policy using sticky notes and another from a recent Rank MI Vote house party showing a four year old successfully filling out a ranked choice ballot.
About Rank MI Vote
Rank MI Vote (RMV) is a non-partisan, volunteer-led organization dedicated to bringing Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) to Michigan via a constitutional amendment ballot initiative in 2026. RMV envisions a future where every voter feels heard, every vote matters, and democracy reflects the people — not party elites and special interests.
