A Guest Post by Joe Brandis, President of Michigan Citizens for Election Integrity (MC4EI.com)
In November, Michigan citizens need to Vote No on Proposal 2, the Right to Voting Policies Amendment, which is the “Promote the Vote” Initiative. This proposal would fundamentally change the way elections are conducted in the State of Michigan. It would be part of the Michigan Constitution and, therefore, be very difficult to change in the future. The Constitution is not designed to put every law into effect that we can’t pass through the legislative process. Changes to the U.S. and State Constitution should be rare and of extreme importance.
Take away- It should be rare and difficult to change the Constitution.
What are the changes to the Michigan Constitution that this proposal would impose? There are a number of moving parts to this, but you probably have seen people gathering signatures on petitions at events. It always sounds good in the way it is initially presented to the public; however, the real meat is in the fine print that almost no one reads. We have heard from elected officials that you need to pass a bill to know what’s in it. (Remember Pelosi’s famous line “they have to pass Obamacare before the American people can see what’s in it” statement in 2009? However, in 2017, Pelosi said just the opposite in a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan in regards to Republican efforts to amend Obamacare, “Americans have a right to know what’s in the bill before we pass it.”)
We believe Americans should know what is in a bill and especially what is proposed as a constitutional amendment before agreeing to it.
So how many signatures were needed? For the proposition, you only needed 10% of the vote from the previous gubernatorial race. In this case, it amounted to 425,000 signatures. Do you really think we should have just 1 in 10 voters decide what goes on the ballot which will change our Constitution and fundamentally change the way we conduct our elections? In many cases, ballot petitions are circulated by paid workers. It can cost millions to conduct a ballot drive, and the money usually comes from a host of special interest groups. Should we allow special interest groups to determine what should be in our State Constitution?
Take away- Only 1 in 10 voters were needed in order to get the Proposal on the ballot.
Thus, the Proposition goes on the ballot, and if you get 50% approval plus one vote it’s approved. Remember, just 10% of the voters in Michigan decided to place this on the ballot. This is not good no matter where you are on the political spectrum. Especially, if the voters are not fully informed or aware of the consequences.
Ballot workers tend to spin a petition to get you to sign it. They are paid to get signatures, so they will tell you all of the good things that are in the petition. If you don’t read the fine print you will be stuck with a lot of things you were never told when you signed the petition. The fine print consists of about 1660 words. A lot more words than voters saw on the petitions they may have signed.
Take away- If you haven’t read the fine print, vote No on any proposal that changes the Constitution.
On this past Memorial Day, I attended an event in Plymouth Twp, MI. After the event was over I noticed a group of young people fully masked up and carrying clipboards around gathering signatures. I wondered what this was about. I wandered over, and I watched as a husband and wife were in the process of signing a petition for Promote The Vote. Did you ever notice that the title always sounds great? Who doesn’t want to Promote The Vote? I listened to the pitch, and it sounded fantastic. You will have shorter voting lines at the polls, and it is going to protect the vote of our military men and women serving overseas. I could just see that the couple signing the petition thought that this was such a patriotic endeavor. So with the flag at half-staff in the background, they commenced signing of the petition. Now, the husband was standing back a little and didn’t seem so sure, but the wife was halfway through signing her name. Being curious, I asked the petition circulator what was on the paper that the woman was signing. He didn’t seem too interested in talking because he was probably making $6-$8 for getting this signature. I asked if this was the petition that was going to change the constitution. Is this the petition that will increase the number of drop boxes and allow outside money to flow into our elections? Actually, I said, “Zuck Bucks.” The woman stopped in the middle of signing, and the husband said, “thank you for stopping by; I thought this might not be good but just didn’t know.” The wife, at that point, said “sorry” and crossed out her name on the petition. The point is, that neither she nor her husband understood what was in the fine print. When they knew just a little they then understood that it wasn’t something they wanted to support. The petitioner got away from me and moved on to others with his stump speech of how this petition is so patriotic and common sense.
Here are the most egregious items that voters need to know about the Right to Vote Policies Amendment:
- A citizen has the fundamental right to vote without harassment or interference. If harassed, a lawsuit can be filed.
(Who doesn’t support this? There is a 100 ft rule already in place. Who decides
what constitutes harassment? Is handing out campaign literature? What about if a
poll challenger of the opposing party issues a “challenge” to the process of voting
tabulation or poll worker conduct? Michigan election law allows for this. Will this
amendment override this?)
2. Right to vote with a photo ID or by signing an affidavit if one does not have a
photo ID! And if a voter signs an affidavit, the ballot does not even have to be
considered a provisional ballot.
(Meaning that there is no verification to be performed. This is a glaring contradiction and a trick perpetrated on citizens to make them think a photo ID is required when in reality, one can get out of it by signing an affidavit. Who are they kidding?)
3. Provides for many more drop boxes – about 2000 or more! Just look at some
of what MC4EI found upon analysis of the Detroit drop box surveillance videos
in the 2020 General Election.
Drop boxes are a magnet for ballot traffickers.
Shocking Video! Via MC4EI and Gateway Pundit- 13 Minutes of Never-Before-
Seen Footage of Ballot Trafficking in Detroit, Michigan- including Postal Workers!
4. The Secretary of State shall conduct all election audits and no other outside
organizations are allowed to be involved.
(This eliminates the right for people to seek redress of grievances against election malfeasance. Regardless if the incumbent government officials are Democrats or Republicans, there should be unbiased auditing of elections. If election officials are implicated in election fraud, how can they be the ones tasked with investigating it? They should recuse themselves.)
4. Outside, private money may be accepted by counties, cities, or townships in
conducting an election.
(This is codifying into the State Constitution the infamous Zuckerbucks type of intervention that occurred in the 2020 election. Do we really want billionaires influencing the outcome of our elections?)
Take away- Why is there so much in the fine print of this ballot initiative that is not clearly delineated and explained to the public?
I served as a sub-caucus chairman at the Oakland County Republican Party county convention in August of this year. I had to take an oath to uphold, protect and defend the US and State Constitutions. Who is going to defend the Michigan Constitution from this assault on election integrity and security?
Most voters don’t know half of what is in this amendment. This should be left up to our elected officials to work out for future elections. Don’t let 10% of the voters or about 4% of the population of Michigan change our Constitution. Vote No on Proposition 2.
For the full version of this article, visit our website at MC4EI.com
What are the Satellite Voting Centers in Detroit? Why are they a potential problem? Stay tuned for a future article to explain this.
