In the Mel Brooks comedy classic “History of the World Part l,” his Roman character Comicus is quoted: “Politics! Politics! Politics! – The Roman Senate is the best legislature money can buy; corruption starts with the little peddlers in the street. They bribe an assemblyman – the assemblyman bribes a captain – the captain bribes a senator and goes all the way up to the emperor!”   The movie, while funny at the time, strikes a similar note today in Michigan politics.   In 2022, campaign donations to Michigan lawmakers from you, me and our neighbors amounted to 11% of their ..read more

Members of the House Elections Committee on Monday voted in favor of advancing a slate of bipartisan bills that would regulate the use of deepfakes in political ads.  Last week, House Elections Committee Chair Penelope Tsernoglou (D-East Lansing) and state Reps. Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton), Matthew Bierlein (R-Vassar) and Noah Arbit (D-West Bloomfield) introduced House Bills 5141–5145. The bills would require disclaimers on political ads with audio, images or videos generated using artificial intelligence and create penalties for trying to deceive voters close to an election by using dee ..read more

In a new report evaluating state redistricting efforts, Michigan scored a “B” based on feedback from state and local organizations, advocates and community organizers. The report by the Coalition Hub for Advancing Redistricting & Grassroots Engagement (CHARGE), used interview survey responses to evaluate each state’s redistricting efforts, including what worked, what did not and what could be done better in the future. While redistricting was previously performed by the Legislature with the governor signing off on the effort, Michigan voters approved a constitutional amendme ..read more

When voters decided to expand voting rights in 2018 and again in 2022 through citizen-led petition initiatives, they did so unconstitutionally 11 Republican state lawmakers argued as part of a lawsuit filed Thursday. As a result, Sen. Jonathan Lindsey, R-Coldwater, and Rep. Steve Carra, R-Three Rivers, said they and nine other officials were seeking to invalidate these two changes and do away with petition initiatives that bypass the Michigan legislature altogether when they pertain to state election law. Jamie Lyons-Eddy, executive director of Voters Not Politicians, which worked to pass Prop ..read more

Hi Team,  I’m going to be very frank with you: our state legislature is failing at its job right now.  Last year, voters passed Proposal 22-1, a clear call for ethics and transparency reforms in our state government. Over 65% of voters approved this ballot measure because Michiganders are tired of the corruption that has plagued our state government for far too long.  Voters Not Politicians has been pushing the legislature to follow through on this constitutional mandate from voters by implementing robust public financial disclosures, strong conflict of interest rules, and expan ..read more

Voters Not Politicians is heartbroken to share the tragic loss of Ted Lawson, a well-known member of the VNP community in and around Lansing. On Sunday afternoon, Ted lost his life to gun violence.  Ted was a volunteer field director in Ingham County during our 2018 campaign to end gerrymandering. He worked tirelessly to empower volunteers through technical, canvassing, and training support. If you were an activist in Lansing, you knew Ted.  VNP Programs Director Kim Murphy-Kovalick, who worked with Ted during the 2018 campaign, shared, “Ted’s tireless commitment to democracy through ..read more

October 4, 2023 | Volume 5, No. 10 Hi friend, Where has the year gone?! It’s already October, we are entering the final quarter of 2023, and even with so much already accomplished this year, Voters Not Politicians still has plenty of work left to do.  As the Programs Director for Voters Not Politicians, I wanted to send this month’s newsletter to give you an update on what we’re working towards in the final months of this year! In this month’s newsletter, you will hear how Voters Ed Fund is re-launching our successful Election Protection program to recruit Nonpartisan Election Challenger ..read more

Voters Not Politicians has always been a grassroots organization. As we’ve grown our pro-democracy programming, we’ve learned will need even more support to be able to continue and expand that important work.  Tashia James is the new Grant Manager at Voters Not Politicians, and she’s helping to keep our grassroots movement growing strong! Tashia joined Voters Not Politicians staff in July 2023 and represents several first for our family of organizations. Not only is she the first dedicated Grants Manager in our Development Department, she’s also the first staff member from outside of Mic ..read more

Last month we announced the kick off of our fall field plan and we have hit the ground running. We started things off with an Anti-Corruption Webinar to discuss the ins and outs of our legislative goals and took to the doors in Benton Harbor and Wyoming to ensure elected officials hear from their constituents about how important this legislation is. We’re hearing from Michigan voters how important anti-corruption legislation is in Michigan, but we still need your help to make sure these critical changes happen in Michigan!  We only have a few weeks left this year to implement critical eth ..read more

September 6, 2023 | Volume 5, No. 9 Hi friend, We’ve certainly had a busy summer here at Voters Not Politicians! (No such thing as an off-year for democracy.) This summer, we’ve seen continued progress in the grassroots lobbying, clerk engagement, and civic education programs that we launched way back at the beginning of the year. This month, you can read blog posts from Mariah Phelps, Director of Democracy Engagement, and Alyson Grigsby, Education Program Manager to learn more about how these programs have been developing and the successes our team has achieved so far this year.  And as ..read more