How a Group of Political Novices Ended Gerrymandering in Michigan

The Sequim Good Governance League (SGGL) formed in response to right-wing agitators taking over positions of power and spreading misinformation. SGGL recruited progressive and moderately conservative candidates who successfully defeated incumbents with the help of dozens of volunteers they trained. Volunteers worked around the clock, sent out emails, put up signs around the town, and used their most effective tool: having one-on-one conversations with other residents. SGGL-backed candidates now hold the majority of government offices.

Collective, or shared, candidacies, where groups of candidates to run for a single elected position in Brazil, has helped elevate women and other marginalized groups with progressive platforms to rise to power. From 2016 and 2018, 22 of the 98 groups that ran were elected. In 2020, 41% of the joint candidacies were led by women. A national bill to formalize collective candidacies has stalled since 2017, so one member of the group is formally elected, and is the one to cast votes and give formal speeches, while the others are hired as advisers but still are empowered to write and propose bills.

Low voter turnouts, populists offering half-truths, corporate interests, and the blurring of facts in the media are signs that democracy around the world is in turmoil. Internationally, citizens have assembled different programs and initiatives that arm ordinary people with information about policy and their elected officials, as well as distinctive ways to reform the electoral system.

A grassroots campaign ended gerrymandering in Michigan by passing an initiative requiring districts be drawn by citizen-commissions rather than politicians. The all-volunteer campaign went door-to-door collecting enough signatures to get the initiative on the ballot and used creative voter-engagement techniques to sustain the support. Once the ballot initiative passed, 9,300 people applied for the first commission. A third-party firm ultimately selected four Democrats, four Republicans, and five non-partisan people as commissioners, who worked together very well to redraw districts.

Step Up Nigeria’s "Catch Them Young Initiative" uses children’s storybooks and animated films to teach school children how to become anti-corruption ambassadors. The books, which have recently been adapted to animated films, address the dangers of corrupt practices like vote-buying and bribery. The organization not only distributes the books and films, but also trains teachers to give the lessons. Over 250 teachers have been trained and at least 20,000 children have received anti-corruption education materials.

Voters Not Politicians is a grassroots initiative that, with the help of hundreds of volunteers, ran a successful campaign to defeat gerrymandering in Michigan. The state has a citizen-led ballot initiative option, so the group held townhall meetings and gathered over 410,000 voter signatures to get the initiative on the statewide ballot. The measure was challenged in courts, but the group raised funds for legal help and the initiative passed by a margin of 61-39 percent. The new law requires that an independent group of average citizens will decide district boundaries with full transparency.

Citizens’ assemblies, which allow for mass participation in political debates and decision-making with a lottery system to select speakers, are increasingly being used to overcome issues such as corruption and the unwillingness by incumbent politicians to address controversial issues. Many countries now use citizens’ assemblies, including Ireland who used one in 2017 to push forward a debate and decision on its abortion ban after decades of political deadlock. Citizens’ assemblies do face challenges, including being dismantled by ruling politicians who feel they challenge incumbent power.

Gerrymandered Congressional districts, drawn using evermore individualized voter data, are set up to tip elections across the United States. Lawmakers and voting advocates are pushing back and creating new methods of making the maps. From independent commissions to constitutional amendments, here’s what’s happening in California, Colorado, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, South Dakota and Utah.

The Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies provides a "blueprint" for peaceful and democratic revolution, busting myths about the process of nonviolent revolt and helping dissidents in countries around the world to accomplish political goals, such as fighting corruption or protecting the environment.

In Iowa, the “redistricting” of the state’s legislative and congressional boundaries is done by mapmakers who abide by nonpartisan metrics that all sides agree are fair — a seemingly revolutionary concept in the high-stakes decennial rite of redistricting.