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A Michigan voting rights group is launching a campaign to make voting more accessible.
In 2018, Promote the Vote successfully got a ballot measure passed opening up no-excuse absentee voting and same-day registration around the state. Now, the group is working to ensure voting is accessible ahead of the midterm election season.
The group announced Monday (January 31) the "Promote the Vote 22" campaign aimed at changing election laws and funding shift to better support absentee voting.
The initiative is also seeking to block partisan canvassers and lawmakers from interfering with the election certification process –– like what took place during the 2020 election when attempts to not count Detroit's precincts.
Additionally the group is looking to secure nine days of early voting for Michigan voters, ballot tracking technology, and allowing voters to apply for an absentee ballot for all future elections, instead of having to apply every election.
News of the Michigan's efforts come as former First Lady Michelle Obama's When We All Vote organization is harnessing star power to drive voter registration across the country.
Since the 2020 election, dozens of laws sponsored by Republicans have been passed in several states that effectively restrict voting. Two key pieces of federal voting rights legislation failed in the Senate after two Democratic Senators –– Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema –– voted against changing the filibuster rule.
Several states are currently in legal battles over their congressional voting maps, with multiple being forced to redraw them to better represent Black voters in their respective states.
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