A blueprint for democracy: What America can learn from Michigan’s reforms  

In recent years, nearly half of states have enacted policies that make it more difficult for Americans to exercise their fundamental right to vote and make their voices heard. While these efforts persist, states like Michigan are moving in the opposite direction — expanding access to the ballot and increasing democratic representation.

Michigan voters have approved several transformative reforms over the past five years that have increased voter participation and representation and made the state a blueprint for strengthening democracy. At a time when public faith in elections, democracy and government is near historic lows across the country, Michigan voters have shown that a different course can be charted, even as commonsense election reforms have been politicized and discredited by many federal and state officials.

The key to Michigan’s success has been the passage of a series of citizen-driven ballot proposals to amend the state constitution — two in 2018 and one in 2022. Through these proposals, voters approved no-excuse mail-in voting, ballot drop-box standards, automatic and same-day voter registration, early in-person voting, and an independent redistricting commission.

The impact was immediate. The number of active voters increased by more than half a million between 2018 to 2020 and voter turnout increased by more than 7 percentage points from the 2016 to the 2020 election. The voter registration and turnout rate for Black Michiganders increased by roughly 17 percent from the 2018 to the 2022 election; while over that same period, the registration rate for Black voters across the country increased by only 0.3 percent and turnout declined 12 percent.

The significant increase in voting rates among Black Michiganders indicates that additional voting and registration methods were successful in reaching people who were otherwise not captured by more traditional methods. This makes Michigan a critical example of how states cannot merely strive for high voter turnout for a healthy democracy — they must create equal participation.

In addition to voting reforms, Michiganders also ended partisan gerrymandering by approving a citizen-led independent redistricting commission. The proposal was initiated by one frustrated voter who began a redistricting reform movement following the 2016 election. The commission is composed of 13 citizens — four affiliated with each major political party and five not affiliated with either — with the authority to draw state and congressional district maps.

Prior to the 2020 census, the state legislature held redistricting authority and Michigan was among three states with the “most extreme levels of partisan bias” in its congressional maps. It also had legislative district maps that heavily favored the party in control of the state legislature. By contrast, the commission’s maps are a major step forward for partisan fairness and representation in the state. This was clear in the 2022 election, when the share of state-wide votes for Democratic and Republican candidates much more accurately translated to that party’s share of seats in the state legislature and Congress.

A growing majority of voters across the political spectrum resoundingly approve of the commission, with 66 percent of voters now preferring it over the legislature. That’s more than the 61 percent of the vote in favor of independent redistricting when it prevailed on the ballot.

Michigan is among 17 states that allow for citizen-initiated constitutional amendments — a form of direct democracy that allows citizens to put policy issues to a vote and bypass the hyper-polarization and partisan gridlock in state legislatures. While these ballot proposals have been critical for Michigan’s healthy democracy, lawmakers in Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Ohio and South Dakota have been trying to restrict the process by increasing the threshold required for approval of constitutional amendments. Florida lawmakers were considering a bill this year that would increase the state’s already high threshold from 60 percent to 66.7 percent.

In Florida, lawmakers severely undermined a 2018 ballot measure — approved by 65 percent of the vote — to restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated people. Lawmakers did this by modifying the policy to additionally require Floridians to repay fines and fees before they can vote. This has led to widespread uncertainties over eligibility and created a poll-tax system reminiscent of the Jim Crow era. In many ways, it effectively negated the citizen-approved policy that would have restored voting rights to nearly 1.5 million Floridians — including approximately 21 percent of otherwise eligible Black voters in the state. 

By contrast, elected officials in Michigan have upheld the will of the people by promptly implementing voter-approved policies. The state implemented automatic and online voter registration in just nine months; many states have struggled for years to implement these reforms. Because of their hard work, in the span of one election cycle, Michiganders had two new ways to cast their vote and three new ways to register to vote.

Aside from all of these successes, what makes Michigan perhaps an even more compelling blueprint for democracy has been the state’s ability to retain public confidence in elections and democracy at a time when these are near historic lows across the country. Polls show that 84 percent of voters in the state approve of how they cast their vote in the 2022 election. Another 75 percent believe the election was accurate, and 60 percent feel optimistic about democracy. This stands in contrast with nationwide polls that show only 63 percent of registered voters believe the 2022 election was accurate and just 41 percent of American adults are satisfied with the state of democracy.

Reforms enacted in Michigan since 2018 demonstrate the power that citizens can have to reimagine and shape their democracy. Michigan is not just a good model for demonstrating the potential impact of voting and redistricting reforms, it also shows how popular these reforms are among the people — both on the ballot and in practice.

States across the country would be wise to follow Michigan’s blueprint for adopting popular pro-democracy reforms on a nonpartisan basis. Michigan has shown how quickly these reforms can lead to a more inclusive and representative government.

Greta Bedekovics is assistant director for Democracy at the Center for American Progress.

Ashleigh Maciolek is a research associate at the Center for American Progress.