Backers of ranked choice voting want proposal on Michigan ballot despite Trump opposition
Supporters of ranked choice voting — a system that would overhaul how elections are won and lost in Michigan — are hoping to gather petition signatures in the coming months and put a proposal on the ballot to amend the state Constitution in November 2026.
Pat Zabawa, executive director of the group Rank MI Vote, told The Detroit News that his committee expects to have the Board of State Canvassers authorize the wording of its petition forms as soon as next month.
That approval would likely allow Rank MI Vote to begin gathering signatures and might intensify an already growing debate that's drawn the attention of Republican President Donald Trump about whether the voting process needs an overhaul in the battleground state of Michigan.
While Rank MI Vote hasn't released the specifics of its plan, generally under ranked choice voting, people have the ability to rank the candidates for a particular office and the ultimate winner has to get a majority of the support. If no candidate gets a majority of the first-choice votes, the initial last-place finisher would drop off and the second choices of the last-place finisher's backers would be recounted as first-place votes. The process would continue until someone got more than 50%.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2025/05/21/ranked-choice-voting-michigan-campaign-donald-trump-opposition-royal-oak-kalamazoo-east-lansing/83580888007/