Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

Found liable for massive fraud, is required to post a massive bond, gets a break, then files a *fraudulent* bond!

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

This blog will pay for itself.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Boots On the Ground Fundraising: Protect Michigan!

Boots On the Ground Fundraising: Protect Michigan!

by | 52 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Introducing our first political fundraising effort of 2022…

Boots On the Ground: Promote the Vote 2022

November is coming up fast!

Promote the Vote 2022 is a Michigan group working to make elections more fair, more secure, more convenient, and more accessible.  For everyone!

We already know from our Four Directions fundraising that we have a lot of connections to Michigan, and that became even more clear when BG put up a culture post related to Michigan.

Medium Cool with BGinCHI – Michigan!

We all know that Michigan is one of the key states in the 2022 election.  The threats in each key state are unique, and the response to those threats must be as well.

Promote the Vote is a Michigan-based coalition of organization and individuals fighting to protect the vote in that critical state.  Some of their early supporters include the ACLU, APIVote Michigan, League of Women Voters, Michigan League of Conservation Voters, the NAACP, and Voters Not Politicians.

These organizations have a track-record of success.  In 2018, they worked together to pass one ballot initiative that provided equal access to absentee voting and Election Day registration and another ballot initiative that established Michigan’s Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission.

Promote the Vote 2022 has carefully-drafted a new ballot initiative to amend the Michigan Constitution to ensure all voters in Michigan can make their voice heard and that their votes are counted.  They need enough signatures to qualify for the Ballot by July, and they need boots on the ground to promote the initiative in advance of the November election, assuming they get enough signatures to qualify.

If it passes, we can worry a lot less about election subversion in Michigan.  And the people in Michigan will have elections that are more fair, more secure, more convenient, and more accessible.  For everyone!

Here’s where we come in.

In keeping with our goal of supporting boots on the ground organizations – particularly those who direct their efforts to underserved communities – we want to raise $25,000 for an outreach project targeted toward underserved communities.

Promote the Vote 2022 will work with trusted messengers in key communities – across all the protected classes, including the Arab-American, LGBTQ, veteran, and disability communities – to recruit volunteers and hire fellows to gather signatures, and forge relationships going forward.

As they go door-to-door to gather signatures, they can also register people to vote if they aren’t registered already.  So that pays off directly in 2022, but we are looking further ahead than that.  After the signature-gathering step, we would like to keep those “fellows” on for the second step, which is working to get the ballot initiative passed in November 2022.

We talked about the possibility of “matching” funds, and once enough signatures have been collected to qualify, Promote the Vote 2022 will work to find matching funds for the second step of working toward getting the initiative passed.

The direct goal is, of course, more signatures.  But it is important that Promote the Vote 2022 continues to work with those critical communities that have been negatively affected by voter suppression across this country.  By engaging new and infrequent voters by way of this initiative, Promote the Vote 2022 will also foster greater civic participation in the midterms.  Plus, ballot initiatives across the country have historically served as a way to increase turnout during the mid-terms.  And the fellows and volunteers will continue their education efforts in critical communities after the initiative makes the ballot and through the election.

These people at Promote the Vote 2022 know what they’re doing.  They’ve already written and passed two constitutional amendments, and they know how to draft it to withstand challenge.  There’s a lot at stake; the time to act is now!

If successful, this Michigan effort can be a template for other states with a similar distribution of power and a mechanism for constitutional amendment by referendum.

For all those reasons, we think this can be not just win-win, but it has the potential to be win-win-win-win-win in the coming years.

Opportunities for Action, as well as Fundraising

They’ll be holding “days of action” and “weekends of action” for residents of Michigan and nearby states to help canvas in communities across Michigan (you don’t have to be a resident of Michigan to gather signatures – just registered to vote in your state).

Other opportunities for participation are enumerated on the Promote the Vote 2022 website.

To Learn More

We have scheduled two Balloon Juice events:

– Q & A post/thread with them for Monday 4/4 at 5:30 Eastern

– Zoom Q & A for Tuesday 4/5 at 7:00 Eastern.



.

Reader Interactions

52Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    It’s hard to think about anything else with Ukraine under siege.  But the pages of the calendar are still turning, and November will be here before we know it.  Early money can be spent much more strategically; money at the end is mostly spent on TV ads.

    If you guys have any questions, let us know in the comments.  Thoughts to share, please share them!

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    In for $50 right now, more after I get settled. Thank you again, WG, for stick-handling these great fundraising initiatives.

  6. 6.

    SiubhanDuinne

    In for $50 right now, more after I get settled. Thank you again, WG, for stick-handling these great fundraising initiatives.

    ETA: Haven’t the foggiest idea why this comment posted twice. I swear I didn’t jerk my finger on the screen or anything.

  8. 8.

    Almost Retired

    If the Republicans can’t pull the Michigan brick out of the blue law WALL through voter suppression, they’ll have to compete on their ideas and the quality of their candidates.  Good luck with that.  I love that this could both be a comprehensive solution to voter suppression AND a registration drive and midterm enthusiasm generator.  A three-fur!!  I may use one of those weekends of action as an excuse to go visit college friends in Michigan who technically haven’t invited me.  I’m in for $250 on this round.

    edited.

  10. 10.

    JeanneT

    In for $25 now, will add more later.  So cool BJ can help promote voting accessibility in my home state!!

  12. 12.

    Another Scott

    This is great. Donated.

    There are a lot of very important states.

    E.g. Wisconsin is having elections in 5 days.

    How does your donation to the WisDems break down?
    ✅56% supports organizing initiatives
    ✅19% innovative outreach
    ✅16% ad space & billboards
    ✅7% operations & misc

    Pitch in now: https://t.co/GHL0Q9i4Dm https://t.co/5qqbHzwfrN pic.twitter.com/7CG5oGB9lm— Wisconsin Democrats (@WisDems) March 31, 2022

    (via LOLGOP (who is in Ann Arbor))

    Donated.

    Thanks everyone.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  14. 14.

    WaterGirl

    I hope you guys will all mark your calendars for the Q & A thread with a representative of Promote the Vote 2022 – who can tell you more about the organization and what they are doing and can also answer any questions you might have.

    Plus next Tuesday evening we have a Zoom scheduled so you can ask questions and talk to Talyce in person if you like!

  15. 15.

    eclare

    I will donate later tonight or tomorrow, currently a cat prevents me from reaching my wallet.

  18. 18.

    Omnes Omnibus

    In for $25.  I am violating my WI only rule for this cycle.

    ETA:  FWIW I was inspired to do it by Adam’s deleted DOOM comment from the other say.  Fuck that shit.

  24. 24.

    Almost Retired

    @Omnes Omnibus:  I’m not allocating any money to my home state of California for obvious reasons, but I am transferring my Iowa money (where I grew up) to Wisconsin, because there is a lot of hope for your state.  Iowa can be written off.  Wisconsin has a mixed but progressive history, so I want it back firmly in our column.  Also, I am eternally grateful that the Safe House in Milwaukee didn’t scrutinuze fake IDs with any enthusiasm in 1982.  So I have a soft spot…

  26. 26.

    dexwood

    @WaterGirl: Never keep cash in my wallet, only ID, credit cards, miscellaneous. A real pain to replace all that, a bigger pain settling the vet bill. Loved that goofy mutt anyway.

  27. 27.

    WaterGirl

    @dexwood: Oh, no, I never even thought of that.  I figured “eating the wallet” was more about chewing and not so much about swallowing.  Glad there was a happy ending to that, even if not so happy for your bank account.

  28. 28.

    WaterGirl

    I am leaving the Balloon Juice for Ukraine thermometer up, too.  I figure that we can walk and chew gum at the same time.

    edit: At least on a good day!

  29. 29.

    BeautifulPlumage

    In for $50 plus finally contributed to the Ukraine campaign.

    I love that this coalition has a recent and great track record on initiatives in MI.

    I’m still a small monthly supported of Wisconsin Dems. Ben seems good at keeping up the momentum.

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    This post has been up only a couple of hours, and already we’re slightly more than one-tenth of the way to the goal! I never cease to be amazed and impressed with what we jackals are capable of accomplishing, working cooperatively.

  35. 35.

    Don K

    There are any number of good initiatives that might qualify here in MI this year: this one, codifying reproductive freedom in the MI Constitution and repealing our age-old anti-abortion law, and legalizing psilocybin and peyote (one city in the Detroit area has already done an Ann Arbor and decriminalized the two drugs). Someone needs to do a petition drive to repeal the Michigan Marriage Amendment of 2004, in case the Roberts Court gets frisky regarding overturning Obergefell. I’ll be donating both here and in winnable races (WI/PA Senate) over the next few months.

  36. 36.

    BeautifulPlumage

    @WaterGirl: except I don’t get to see the slider move any further to the right! I have noted the amount being exceeded twice, so good on y’all.

  43. 43.

    Wolvesvalley

    I gave end-of-quarter donations to Raphael Warnock, Mark Kelly, and two local campaigns this evening. But I think BJ’s focus on boots-on-the-ground organizations this election cycle is really important. I have put some money in for Promote the Vote.

  44. 44.

    WaterGirl

    I just listened to Presient Zelensky’s 10-minute address and it was hard to watch. I don’t know how they keep going when they are under constant attack. Even knowing the most tired most of us have ever been, I bet we cannot fathom just how exhausted they are. They need more help and I hope the US can find a way to give it to them.

    Still, we need to keep fighting for democracy here at home and keep doing everything we can personally to help Ukraine.

    Thanks again to everyone who has donated so far.

  45. 45.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I am getting multiple messages from Mark Kellys campaign.  One was right after I had donated asking for more. Its getting tiresome and I can’t be the only one who feels that way.

  48. 48.

    snoey

    Add another $100.

    My daughter, her wife and now a grandson live in Ann Arbor.

    This one’s personal.

  51. 51.

    dkinPa

    Thank you for doing this, WaterGirl!  I kicked in $50, will do more later for the match.

Comments are closed.