Comment Voters rejected election denialists across the country last week. But they did so with particular fervor along the Great Lakes. In Minnesota, the Democratic secretary of state defeated by 10 points a Republican challenger who falsely called the 2020 election rigged and pushed to limit early voting. In Wisconsin, voters handed Gov. Tony Evers (D) a second term, refusing to reward a candidate backed by former President Donald Trump, who has left open the possibility of trying to overturn the last presidential election. In Pennsylvania, Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) trounced Republican Doug Mastriano, who had signaled his willingness to invalidate voting machines if he won the governorship. But perhaps the biggest statement about democracy was made in Michigan, where voters by wide margins rejected a series of Republican challengers running for governor, attorney general and secretary of state. They also passed an amendment to the state constitution that expands voting rights and makes it much harder for officials to overturn the will of the voters. In the process, they overturned the Legislature with the help of new legislative maps drawn by a nonpartisan committee, giving Democrats full control of state government for the first time in 40 years. All of this led Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) to make a bold prediction, one that might have seemed far-fetched before the vote: “Democracy will ultimately emerge from this period stronger than ever — more robust, healthier, with more people engaged and believing in it than maybe in 2018 or 2019.” In other battleground states across the country, voters rejected the election’s naysayers, but in many cases not as strongly as in states bordering the Great Lakes. Katie Hobbs (D) narrowly beat challenger Kari Lake (R) in Arizona’s gubernatorial race and, in Nevada, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) barely held off a challenge from the challenger Adam Laxalt (R). The denial is one of several issues expected to feature prominently next month in the Georgia runoff between Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D) and Republican Herschel Walker, who has embraced Trump’s lies about his election. 2020. Jeff Timmer, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party who now works on the Anti-Trump Lincoln Plan, said Democrats performed exceptionally well in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin because they honed their appeal to voters in a set of states that they went for Trump in 2016, only to return in 2020 to their pattern of voting Democratic in presidential elections. Evers, Shapiro and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) showed they came from “the governing, realist wing of the party,” he said. “They weren’t seen as fire-breathing ideologues by any means,” Timmer said. “I think those three campaigns are broadly the model for national Democrats to look at on how to win purple states.” A more mixed picture emerged in the Great Lakes state of Ohio. JD Vance (R), who falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen, won his Senate bid. But three other election naysayers who ran in competitive House districts in Ohio lost. Track which election naysayers are winning and losing in the midterms The relatively smooth election process and disavowal of election naysayers was encouraging to many election officials who had watched the systems they ran undermined by Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 presidential vote. “It doesn’t mean that denial has gone away,” said Chris Thomas, Michigan’s former director of elections. “But we can maybe grab some of these people who are closely connected to the Trump operation and independents to take a breather and say, ‘Yeah, OK, this system worked.’ Michigan’s adoption of the state constitutional voting rights amendment comes four years after voters narrowly passed a measure that established ineligible absentee voting and allows people to register to vote at the polls. The voting rights amendment was overshadowed by an amendment guaranteeing abortion rights that voters overwhelmingly approved. Another amendment approved by voters last week changed the way term limits work in the state. The new voting rights amendment, approved with 60 percent of the vote, is far-reaching. It establishes nine days of early voting, expands the use of polls and ensures that voters who do not have a photo ID with them can vote by signing affidavits that they are who they say they are. “Voters want safe and accessible elections,” said Christina Schlitt, co-chair of the League of Women Voters of Michigan. “And we heard loud and clear from the voters of Michigan … that all parties rejected attacks on democracy and elections.” The same message was given in Pennsylvania, said Sharif Street, chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party and a state senator. There, Democrats won the governor and U.S. senator races and are on the verge of taking control of the lower house of the legislature for the first time since 2010. “There was no red wave. There wasn’t a single red spray,” Street said. “We’re clearly still a very purple state in terms of the attitude of the electorate. But I think the Democrats are offering realistic solutions, and Doug Mastriano has been offering divisive rhetoric.” In Michigan, state lawmakers and election officials will now turn to implementing the new amendment that expands access to voting. One of the biggest changes will involve moving to a new form of early voting. Michigan has allowed voters to mail in absentee ballots or fill them out at clerks’ offices. In both cases, the clerks did not count the absentee ballots until Election Day. Under the new provision, voters will have the opportunity to go to early voting centers, fill out ballots and feed them to polling boards. The machines can quickly tally results on Election Day, reducing the workload for officials and reducing the chances that election naysayers will take advantage of vote counting delays to promote false claims. Officials will have to work out a number of logistical issues, including finding places where they can conduct voting for nine days and store their equipment safely overnight. Small cities in many cases will need to work out arrangements with other jurisdictions to help them vote early. Mary Clark, the clerk of Delta Township, near Lansing, said she hopes the amendment will boost voter turnout. “We are a nation that has the freedom to vote,” he said. “In some areas there is low participation. I think it’s up to us to provide opportunities to make it easier and meet the needs of voters.” The amendment also establishes a fundamental right to vote, giving citizens the opportunity to file a lawsuit to block any laws or policies they believe impede their ability to vote. The amendment strengthens requirements that election officials certify results that reflect the will of voters and blocks partisan election reviews like the one in Arizona in 2021 conducted by a firm with no experience reviewing elections. Every community should have at least one ballot box according to the new amendment. Those with larger populations should have one drop box for every 15,000 registered voters. In addition, voters under the amendment would be allowed to automatically mail absentee ballots for all elections. This will make voting easier, but will require election officials to carefully monitor when people move to ensure ballots are sent to the correct address. Chris Swope, Lansing’s city clerk, said he’s not worried about the additional duties he and his staff will have to take on. “To me, this is a positive measure for voters,” he said.
