Promote the Vote Fund: Ensuring Every Voice Is Heard in Michigan

  • Ford Foundation
A graphic for the Promote the Vote Fund featuring a map of Michigan with a red checkmark. A hand places a ballot into the map against a background of white stars and "VOTE" text, symbolizing voting rights, election protection, and civic participation in Michigan.

In Michigan, local leaders work tirelessly to ensure that voting is accessible, elections are free and fair, and every eligible voter knows their rights. This strong civic participation doesn’t happen overnight: It’s the result of year-round, coordinated work by organizations to help people understand their rights, navigate the voting process, and come together in their communities to engage and collaborate on meaningful changes.

Promote the Vote Fund, a Ford grantee, is a coalition of partner organizations leading these efforts. The organization works across the ideological spectrum to support voting rights for Michiganders. Its work is grounded in a fundamental belief: that our democracy works best when all our voices are heard. Here, Micheal Davis, Jr., executive director of Promote the Vote Fund, discusses their strategy and their successes to date.

Building Rights That Last

With our year-round voter education work, we strive to ensure that every eligible Michigan voter knows how to exercise their right to vote. Interwoven with the nuts and bolts of how to participate in our democracy, we work to spread the values of why this participation is important. We talk about how everyday Michiganders can use voting to live their values and take care of their families, friends, and communities.

We strive to be a place where everyone can come together across divisions to connect and make their voices heard. Following the passage of Prop 22-2 enshrining voting rights into Michigan’s state constitution, this long-term,  voter education work has been critical in ensuring voting rights are not easily rolled back in the future.

A graphic for the Promote the Vote Fund featuring the text: "With our year-round voter education work, we strive to ensure that every eligible Michigan voter knows how to exercise their right to vote." The layout includes photos of diverse community advocates and civic leaders.

Making Plans for Early Voting

One of the biggest, most impactful pieces of Prop 22-2 was early voting. Now all Michigan voters have the right to at least nine days of in-person early voting, for at least eight hours a day, before each statewide and federal election. The amendment provides a lot of flexibility to local clerks so they can tailor their early voting plans by locations, hours and days to best serve their particular communities.

However, because early voting is not standardized statewide, it presents a challenge when it comes to voter education. To ensure every Michigander is getting the correct information, we work closely with partners on the ground to educate voters on where to go to get their voting information, and how to contact the voter protection hotline (866-OUR-VOTE) if there are any questions. We’ve also created MichiganVoting.org as a one-stop shop for everything Michiganders need to know about voting.

Protecting Elections, One Voter at a Time

We’ve created comprehensive “Know Your Voting Rights” guides. They cover voter eligibility, registration, voting methods, how to get help voting, and what to do if you encounter problems while voting. Our democracy doesn’t work unless people participate. Our guides give Michiganders the tools they need to make their voices heard. Our hotline volunteers also tackle voting access one call at a time, handling the unique situations that often prevent eligible voters from voting. These programs keep our team and our volunteers fighting every day to ensure every eligible Michigander can make their voice heard in our elections.

A graphic on a blue map background featuring the quote: "Our democracy doesn't work unless people participate." The text is centered on a red torn-paper element, framed by two illustrative hands, advocating for civic engagement, voter turnout, and democratic participation.

The Everyday Leaders We Need

On Election Day in November 2024, we had nearly 200 volunteers on the ground dedicated to making sure Michigan’s election ran smoothly, including retirees, first-year law students, a father and his high-school-age daughter, and a corporate lawyer who took a day off to celebrate her birthday at an absent voter counting board. After spending hours at polling places monitoring the election process and taking action when needed, our volunteers sent emails asking to sign up again for next time. Memories of our volunteers dedicating their time to support our shared mission of fair and free elections in Michigan fuels our commitment to doing this work.