An effort to bring a convoluted rank choice voting system to Michigan moved another step toward the 2026 ballot on Tuesday when supporters submitted a misleading 100-word summary for circulating petitions to the State Board of Canvassers.

Meghan Reckling, CEO of the conservative Victory Field Operations, highlighted the proposed summary and how it’s crafted to mislead uninformed voters in a post to X on Wednesday.

The proposed language reads:

Constitutional amendment to guarantee voters in Michigan the right to: rank candidates in order of preference in most federal, state, and certain local elections; require that candidates for major offices receive a majority of votes to be elected; receive timely notice of changes to polling places or voting procedures; cast a ballot if in line at the time polls close; use secure and accessible paper ballots in all elections, preserved for certification, recounts, and audits; vote for eligible write-in candidates not listed on the ballot; participate in primary elections held at least 140 days before the general election.

Reckling described the proposal as a “Trojan horse” with “two key lines that are specifically engineered to win over well-meaning Republicans and casual voters: Guarantee paper ballots, Guarantee ballot preservation for recounts.”

“Sounds great … until you realize Michigan already does both,” Reckling wrote, pointing to state law that requires paper ballots and their preservation. “There is no need to enshrine this in the Constitution – unless your actual intent is to distract and deceive.”

“Ranked Choice Voting is not about ‘majority winners’ or ‘better elections,’” she continued. “It’s about manipulating outcomes and silencing outsider candidates who don’t have institutional backing.

“It’s also a nightmare for election officials – and a gift to liberal consultants and chaos agents,” the post read. “Don’t fall for the pretty packaging. Don’t let the good people be tricked by language designed to manipulate. And don’t hand over Michigan’s elections to national groups that want to rewrite our laws from DC and San Francisco boardrooms.”

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The proposed language comes from Rank MI Vote, and it’s backed by the same coalition of activists that spearheaded election law changes through constitutional amendments on the ballot in 2018 and 2022.

Ranked choice voting allows voters to rank candidates based on preference, and if their first choice doesn’t win, their vote transfers to their next choice as the candidate with the least votes is eliminated.

That cycle repeats until a single candidate accumulates more than 50% of the vote.

Proponents contend ranked choice voting reduces political polarization, boosts voter turnout and produces results more in line with what voters want.

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Opponents note the process is more complicated and partisan, arguing it produces a result with less transparency at a time when many are questioning election integrity.

In Michigan, both Mayor Mike Duggan, who ditched the Democratic Party to run for governor as an Independent, and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a former hate crimes investigator and Democratic frontrunner for governor, have expressed support for ranked choice voting.

Proponents have spearheaded successful initiatives in East Lansing, Kalamazoo, Royal Oak, Ann Arbor and Ferndale to switch to rank choice voting, but those initiatives are currently blocked by the Michigan Constitution.

The aspiring 2026 ballot initiative is backed by the nonprofit Voters Not Politicians, which led a statewide ballot initiative in 2018 that created a Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission that has since wasted millions of tax dollars to create legislative maps courts have ruled unconstitutional racial gerrymanders.

Voters Not Politicians also led a ballot initiative in 2022 that created loopholes in the state’s voter ID laws through misleading advertising that claimed it would mandate identification for voting.

Both of the ballot initiatives met legal challenges from Michigan Republicans, most recently with a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court in March that requests a review of lower court decisions.

“Cycle after cycle, these groups come in with millions of dollars, clever messaging, and language designed to mislead voters who don’t have time to read the fine print,” Reckling wrote, noting the latest proposal would mandate ranked choice voting for most state, federal and local elections.

“This isn’t reform,” she wrote. “It’s a scam.”

Only two states currently use ranked choice voting – Alaska and Maine – though other states have considered the change. At least 13 states have banned rank choice voting, while voters in four state rejected the approach through ballot proposals in 2024: Oregon, Nevada, Arizona and Colorado.

In Alaska, an initiative to repeal ranked choice voting was narrowly defeated after supporters spent more than $12 million to preserve the practice, compared to a mere $120,000 spent by opponents, according to the Alaska Beacon.

Rank MI Vote is hosting weekly training sessions for volunteers headed by Doug Robbins, a retired Marathon Oil geologist from Alaska who moved with his wife to the Gull Lake area in 2023, according to the Michigan Fair Elections Institute.

An anonymous volunteer who attended a training session on Feb. 27 told the election integrity nonprofit Robbins insists “a lot of political operatives are going to need to be funded to get this passed.”

Robbins, who described himself of an early proponent of ranked choice voting in Alaska, has also put his money where his mouth is as the single largest donor to the Rank MI Vote Ballot Question Committee, with a $100,103.45 contribution in 2024.

Republicans argue in their petition for U.S. Supreme Court to review the 2018 and 2022 ballot initiatives that the U.S. Constitution’s Elections Clause “mandates state legislatures to regulate federal elections.”

Misleading ballot proposals circumvented that requirement to enshrine in the state constitution the most dramatic changes to Michigan’s election laws in four decades, Republicans contend.

Plaintiffs point to the Election Clause, which states “The times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof,” a point MFEI highlighted in a letter to the state board of canvassers warning of potential issues if the ranked choice voting initiative is approved for the 2026 ballot.

“It is imperative that the Board of State Canvassers take into account the legal and constitutional constraints surrounding ballot initiatives that affect elections, especially given ongoing litigation and federal constitutional requirements,” MFEI Chair Patrice Johnson wrote.

“Any election law changes, particularly those affecting federal elections, must first be approved by the state legislature before being presented to voters via ballot initiatives,” she wrote. “To bypass this process would violate both the U.S. and Michigan Constitutions.”

If approved by the state board of canvassers, Rank MI Vote plans to collect over 611,000 signatures in 180 days to put the constitutional amendment before voters in 2026, though a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court could potentially change those plans.

The State Board of Canvassers is next scheduled to meet on June 20.