Tim Skubick

How ’bout these potatoes.

Given the steady drum beat from certain politicians even up until today that Joe Biden did not beat Donald Trump, you would have thunk (sp) that the overall confidence in our elections in Michigan would be in minus numbers and showing no signs of improving.

Thunk (sp) again.

The Democracy Defense Project commissioned a statewide survey and guess what?

Item: 88% trust their local elections and that is up from 78% just two years ago.

Item: 76% believe the 2024 election was fair, secure and accurate.

Item: 78% think the 2026 election will produce the same results.

And even more shocking, pollster Richard Czuba finds that these attitudes cut across the entire political landscape. Meaning not only do Democrats and Independents have confidence but Republicans do too.

Former Democratic Gov. Jim Blanchard who is one of the co-chairs of this project notes that “despite strong feelings about outcomes and winners (in elections) Michigan voters still have confidence” in them.

Former GOP Gov. John Engler, another co-chair in this bipartisan effort, chimes in with, “the confidence level is high. There is a strong belief that we’ve got a system that works.”

Democrats who all along have maintained that nobody was “stealing” the elections or “rigging them” to get more D’s elected, will say the survey vindicates their point of view.

But there are numbers in here that Republicans will gloat over as well.

Asked if they were concerned about non-citizens participating in our Democracy, 57% were somewhat concerned and another 36% are very concerned and you can hear the R’s shouting, “told ya so.”

They have been pounding this different drum for years, calling for more safeguards to nab non-citizens before they get in the polling booth. Democrats, on the other hand, have been more sanguine about all this but if Mr. Czuba’s data is spot on, passing more safeguards appears to have bipartisan backing. Hence, some might argue, as the D’s continue their soul searching to reinvent themselves to win more elections, they might consider jumping on this boat.

Voters may get their chance in November of 2026 to decide a ballot issue on this topic and the pollster indicates based on current attitudes, it would pass handily by a 66%-28% spread.

Adding his two cents to all this is another project co-chair former democratic Lt. Governor and would-be governor who never quite got there, John Cherry. He foresees an emotional debate over this stuff and reflects the bad guys may be out there on the stomp.

“There will be people who will want to take this debate and provide some disinformation and some degree of fear” but he challenges the political press to cover both sides of the issue and keep in mind “the Michigan process is a healthy one the truth.”

And one fascinating finding out there that may cause the hearts of lawmakers to miss a beat: 82% think voters should decide election laws with only 11% claiming that is the job of legislators. (Perhaps the relatives of salons participated in the poll?)

Egads.

But when you think about it, that is exactly what has already happened in this state.

For decades both political parties refused to revamp the way voting districts are constructed, allowing gerrymandering to thrive depending on which party was in power every 10 years.

Then along came a citizen group that cried “uncle.” It collected enough petition signatures to put this on the ballot and the citizens overwhelmingly said “let’s do this” and they did while the pols looked on in shock as gerrymandering took a hit.

Ditto for the citizen effort to create more ways to vote including same-day, early voting, absentee voting (which Republicans killed for four decades) and other reforms. They took the power from lawmakers and did the job themselves.

So while confidence in elections is very respectable, looks like voters are fixing to make some changes on their own.

What’s that old line? Power to the people.