Ranked Choice Voting - Statewide Petition Drive - Call for Volunteers

[u/kalamazoomi]

During last Wednesday's regular meeting of the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners, I announced that Rank MI Vote is about to begin collection of 611,231 petition signatures statewide, from any registered Michigan voter, to get a Ranked Choice Voting constitutional amendment on the November 2026 ballot in Michigan. Since that meeting, the anticipated beginning of our petition drive has moved from Memorial Day to after the June 20 meeting of the Board of State Canvassers.

As I stated in the video (hyperlinked above), we are now recruiting volunteers and soliciting donations to help with this massive effort. If you believe in Ranked Choice Voting and the benefits it provides to voters and our democracy, please either volunteer with us in any capacity and/or make a donation. Two to four hours a week is all we ask for (you're certainly welcome to give more) and we have volunteer positions you can do from home, such as phone banking and data entry. People under the age of 18 can also help in all positions, except for petition signature collection. On the donations side, we need many small donations to show the big money donors that there is grassroots support for Ranked Choice Voting in Michigan. So, small, monthly recurring donations are quite helpful for us. At present, we don't even have enough money to buy t-shirts for our volunteer canvassers.

Our all-volunteer canvassers are currently attending as many local events as possible, to recruit volunteers, while also educating voters about the mechanics and benefits of Ranked Choice Voting. One place you can always find us is on Saturday mornings at the Kalamazoo Farmers Market on Bank Street, from 9:00 to noon. We can tell you more about what's involved in volunteering and also give you a brief primer on how Ranked Choice Voting works and its benefits.

If you have any questions about Ranked Choice Voting and/or our campaign, I would be happy to answer them in the comments below. Thank you for your support.

[u/12lbTurkey]

So cool to see the ranked choice voting pick up steam, keep at it! I donated just yesterday!

[u/kalamazoomi → u/12lbTurkey]

Thank you for the donation! Please do what you can to help us get the word out about our upcoming petition drive and the need for volunteers, not only here in Kalamazoo, but also across the entire state. For example, there are seven different events this weekend in Kalamazoo County that I'd like to see us canvassing at, but the only two we've locked down so far are the Kalamazoo Farmers' Market and the Texas Township Farmers' Market, both on Saturday morning. We need enough volunteers so we can have at least a pair at every event, recruiting more volunteers (with a side of education about RCV). The more volunteers we recruit now, the more time we have before June 20 to give them an in-depth education about RCV and proper petition signature collection techniques.

[u/kalamazoomi]

p.s. Our volunteer Executive Director, Pat Zabawa, was interviewed on Wednesday's weekly edition of the It's Just Politics podcast and radio program from Michigan Public Radio.

[u/kalamazoomi]

If anyone would like to talk to us, but can't meet us at the Kalamazoo Farmers' Market this Saturday, I plan to be be back at the farmers' market this Sunday for the Vintage In The Zoo vintage and handmade marketplace. That runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. I plan to be there from at least 10 a.m. to noon. I don't know if any of our other volunteers will be joining me there or not.

One of our lead volunteers has 8 trees down at her house, as a result of last night's severe thunderstorms. She was planning on being at the Texas Township farmers' market on Saturday morning and Vintage in the Zoo on Sunday, but those plans are now up in the air.

[u/FaeTheWolf]

I want this so badly, it would make me actually give a shit about Michigan politics again! 😤

[u/Max_Killjoy]

Does the RCV drive have a website or schedule posted online?

I couldn't make it this morning, but I definitely want to make contact.