Rank MI Vote, the grassroots organization pushing for a ballot initiative to establish ranked choice voting in Michigan, has paused its statewide efforts to get that measure on the 2026 ballot.
Rank MI Vote Executive Director Pat Zabawa wrote in a statement that the pause is happening as the group “builds momentum toward an eventual statewide win for Ranked Choice Voting in Michigan.”
Bridge Michigan, who first reported the pause, reported that an email to volunteers from field directors Kate De Jong and Kate Grabowsky said that the organization would prepare for “a second launch in April 2027” in an effort to get the measure onto the 2028 ballot.
“However, we are leaving all options on the table for the future of our movement,” Zabawa continued. “We’re particularly proud of the hundreds of thousands of conversations with voters who have signed our petition with the hope that Ranked Choice Voting can give voters more voice and more choice and create a more representative democracy.”
The measure would have needed over 446,000 signatures by June in order to be included on the ballot.
Republican House Speaker Matt Hall of Richland Township celebrated the decision to halt the campaign, calling it a “complete failure” and a “terrible proposal.” House Republicans passed a bill earlier this year that would ban all ranked choice voting in Michigan, which has been referred to the Committee on Elections and Ethics in the Senate.
“I said from the beginning that the people of Michigan strongly oppose ranked choice voting, and the news today shows exactly that,” Hall said in a press release. “We’re not going to allow out-of-state, left-wing radicals to come here and hijack our elections. Never going to happen.”
Ranked choice voting had been the target of conservative groups, including the Heritage Foundation, who said that among the group’s 2026 priorities was to end ranked choice voting completely.
It had also been criticized by some organizations of election administrators, specifically the Michigan Association of County Clerks, who passed a resolution in October urging voters to reject the proposal.
Zabawa added that the “work is just getting started, and we will continue our efforts to advocate for and win Ranked Choice Voting throughout the state as we enter the new year.”
This article was updated to include a statement from House Speaker Matt Hall.
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