The Michigan Nonprofit Association is encouraging residents without identification to cast ballots in the 2024 election, noting all that’s required is a signature on a “simple form.”
“No photo ID? No Problem!” read a Facebook advertisement that began running on Friday. “In Michigan, you can still vote without one.”
The ads, “paid for by Michigan Nonprofit Association,” note, “You will be asked to show ID when you check in to vote. If you don’t have one, you can still vote.”
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“If this happens, expect a poll worker to ask you to sign a simple form called an affidavit before you vote that explains you didn’t have an ID,” according to the ads, which link to Michigan Secretary of State’s “Vote in Person” webpage. “Your ballot will be included with all others and counted on Election Day.”
Data on the ads reveals they were targeted to less than 1 million voters on Facebook and Instagram, garnering between 150,000 and 175,000 impressions. While technically correct, the ads will undoubtedly inflame concerns among some voters about election integrity in a state with more than 687,000 immigrants and 105% more voter registrations than legal voters.
Republicans sued Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and elections officials in 2023 over ballot initiatives in 2018 and 2020 they allege were approved by deceived voters to enshrine a variety of voting reforms in the state constitution.
“As an end-around (the legislature), they used an unconstitutional process, then deceived the public into voting for changes that weaken our elections,” Allen Republican Sen. Jonathan Lindsey said when the lawsuit was announced. “I don’t blame voters. Proponents ran ads saying this ‘enshrines voter ID into our constitution,’ when, in fact, Prop 2 guarantees the right to vote without voter ID – a classic bait-and-switch.”
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In the months since, Benson championed successful legislation in Lansing to block county canvassers from investigating fraud, while simultaneously fighting Republican efforts in the courts to remove ineligible voter registrations and improve election integrity.
Democrats in Lansing are also currently considering legislation to provide driver licenses and state IDs to Michigan’s more than 102,000 illegal immigrants, a move that’s widely opposed by Republicans. Whitmer said last week that “crucial” legislation is “on the list of actions” for lawmakers this fall.
“We all know where that’s gonna go,” former St. Clair County Clerk and current Rep. Jay DeBoyer, R-Clay, said at a press conference in June to denounce Democratic election reforms.
The Michigan Nonprofit Association was founded in 1990 as a 501 (c)(3) membership organization for nonprofits “dedicated to promoting anti-racism and social justice in the nonprofit sector,” according to the group’s website.
MNA’s board consists of representatives from Consumers Energy, Council of Michigan Foundations, Kids’ Food Basket, Prevention at the Intersections, Incompass Michigan, Challenge Detroit, General Motors’ corporate giving department, CEDAM, Michigan Community Service Commission, Detroit Public Television, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Hope Network, among others.
“The nonprofit sector plays a key role in the success of democracy in Michigan,” according to MNA’s public policy page. “MNA works to promote greater engagement of the citizenry, civic dialogue, open elections, and open government.
“MNA supports the longstanding federal policy allowing 501 (c)(3) nonprofits to engage in nonpartisan voter registration, voter education, and get-out-the-vote activities so long as organizations are not coordinating their activities with political campaigns, political parties, or political action committees.”
Other seemingly neutral organizations have also weighed in on the 2024 election by purchasing online ads that appear to cater to Democratic voters.
Last month, America’s largest newspaper chain partnered with the ACLU of Michigan to promote election misinformation ahead of the November vote, despite the obvious conflict of interest.
The Detroit Free Press and Lansing State Journal have promoted sponsored content from the ACLU of Michigan on X that alleges “abortion rights are in jeopardy in Michigan this November.”
The “sponsored” posts are “paid for by Gannett,” the largest newspaper company in the U.S. that owns both Michigan newspapers and 19 others. With over 100 daily newspapers and nearly 1,000 weekly newspapers, the news empire regularly covers abortion litigation from the ACLU across 44 states, one U.S. territory, and six countries.
The “story,” “paid for by ACLU of Michigan,” centers on the Trump national abortion ban lie and a 2022 ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights into the Michigan Constitution. The measure approved by voters played a key role in propelling Democrats to their first government trifecta in Michigan in 40 years, and they’ve relentlessly focused on the issue to motivate voters ever since.
In the “story,” the ACLU connects former President Donald Trump’s appointment of three U.S. Supreme Court justices and the court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade to unnamed politicians who “are promising to pass a national abortion ban that would take away reproductive rights – including from the people of Michigan.” The “story” made similar insinuations about Republicans coming after in vitro fertilization treatments.
The “story,” however, omits statements from Trump’s campaign that debunked the national abortion ban lie, as well as Trump policy proposals designed to promote reproductive health. The ACLU does not mention the organization is suing Michigan in an effort to secure taxpayer-funded abortions.
Trump’s position on abortion has been clear since April, when he debunked claims he’d sign a national abortion ban in a video posted to Truth Social.
The 45th POTUS also unveiled a plan in August to require the federal government to pay for IVF treatments or mandate insurance companies cover the cost, which runs tens of thousands of dollars per cycle.