Americans for Citizen Voting Petition Signatures Fail to Be Certified
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By Kristine Christlieb, MFEI News & Commentary Editor
August 25, 2026
The Michigan Board of State Canvassers voted minutes before its 5:00 p.m. ET deadline on Monday, deadlocking on two motions regarding the Americans for Citizen Voting-Michigan (ACVM) ballot initiative, which would amend the state constitution's provisions on noncitizen voting.
The deadlock dooms the petition drive. Without swift legal intervention, Michigan voters will not have the opportunity to vote in November on the proposed constitutional amendment.
With a number of signatures still in question, and after seven hours of disputing, the petition missed having the required 629 signatures by three.
The bipartisan four-member board — Chair Richard Houskamp (R), Vice Chair Mary Ellen Gurewitz (D), Heather Cummings (D-Novi), and Paul Cordes (R-Rockford) — first deadlocked 2-2 on a motion declaring the petition had sufficient valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot, with Houskamp and Cordes voting in favor and Gurewitz and Cummings voting against. The board then deadlocked again, 2-2 along the same lines, on the opposing motion declaring the petition insufficient. Both votes broke along party lines.
ACVM attempted to cure a number of signatures by providing sworn affidavits from signatories. Even though originals were provided at the meeting, some of the affidavits were dismissed by Democrats because their electronic submissions, while within the deadline, were not legible, and the originals submitted on Monday were not timely.
Chair Houskamp stood firm in support of the five affidavits arguing if the voters who signed the petition had been standing before the Board in person, their testimony would be accepted.
After the meeting concluded, petition organizer Paul Jacob told reporters the fight is not over, that if necessary, he would take the battle to court.
Patrice Johnson, Michigan Fair Elections Institute's chair and founder, called the outcome of the day's proceedings "disappointing." In a written statement, she went on to say:
When a ballot petition is turned in 244 days in advance and has 80% public support yet is the last one for the Michigan Department of State to review, when that ballot petition turns in 60% more signatures than the required number, when the sampling process has a substandard confidence level and is completely opaque, when citizens’ sworn affidavits are ruled out, and when two board of state canvassers have no respect for the rule of law or applying the same parameters they applied to a ballot measure a few weeks prior . . . the word disappointing hardly covers how I and other Michiganders feel.
The crowded meeting room saw no disruptions or outbursts of any consequence. Participants, most of whom were in support of the petition, did have the opportunity to see, firsthand, how the Board conducts its business in a high stakes situation and to learn more about how the staff and board members make decisions.
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