By: Jasmine West
A proposed constitutional amendment that would require Michigan voters to prove U.S. citizenship when registering to vote will not appear on the November ballot after both the Michigan and U.S. supreme courts rejected the campaign’s final legal challenges Thursday.
The proposal would also require voters to present photo identification at the polls or provide it within six days of an election for their ballot to count.
Americans for Citizen Voting Michigan had turned in nearly 710,000 petition signatures in hopes of placing the amendment before voters. But after months of review, challenges and disputes over individual signatures, the campaign ultimately fell three valid signatures short of the 446,198 needed to qualify.
The Michigan Board of State Canvassers deadlocked last month on whether the proposal had enough valid signatures to advance, effectively keeping it off the ballot.
The campaign appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court and later sought emergency intervention from the U.S. Supreme Court as Friday’s 5 p.m. deadline to finalize the November ballot approached.
On Thursday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who handles emergency filings from the federal circuit that includes Michigan, denied the campaign’s request for an injunction blocking the canvassers’ decision.
Hours later, the Michigan Supreme Court also rejected the campaign’s request, closing its remaining path to the 2026 ballot.
Americans for Citizen Voting criticized the decisions and said hundreds of thousands of petition signers had been denied the opportunity to vote on the proposal.
“We are deeply disappointed by today’s decision, particularly for the nearly 710,000 Michigan citizens who put their names on this petition believing they would have an opportunity to vote on it,” campaign spokesperson Kristin Combs said in a statement.
But whether nearly 710,000 valid Michigan voters signed the petition was at the center of the dispute.
A random sample of 1,000 petition signatures reviewed by the Michigan Bureau of Elections found hundreds that staff determined did not meet requirements to be counted. After challenges from opponents and rebuttals from the campaign were processed, Americans for Citizen Voting entered last week’s canvassers meeting 17 signatures below the required threshold.
The campaign then submitted 23 affidavits from voters in an effort to restore rejected signatures.
The Board of State Canvassers accepted 14 of them, bringing the campaign within three signatures of qualifying.
Several others were rejected because board members determined the signatures did not sufficiently match voter records. The board also deadlocked on five affidavits submitted less than 48 hours before its meeting, missing a deadline the canvassers had established for reviewing additional evidence.
Those five signatures became a major focus of the campaign’s appeal.
The Michigan Supreme Court unanimously upheld the board’s 48-hour deadline, finding that state law gives the canvassers discretion over how to consider affidavits submitted to rehabilitate rejected petition signatures.
“MCL 168.476(1) does not mandate the Board to accept affidavits to rehabilitate rejected signatures, nor does it dictate the process of reviewing affidavits if the Board chooses to do so,” Justice Elizabeth Welch wrote in a concurring opinion.
Welch said the campaign challenged how the board handled the process but did not show that it had been denied a procedure guaranteed under state law.
Justice Brian Zahra argued separately that the board should reconsider four affidavits that were submitted on time but still rejected. He did not agree that the broader case warranted placing the proposal directly on the ballot.
Campaign chair Paul Jacob said the outcome undermined the petition process.
“Nearly 710,000 Michiganders did exactly what their Constitution invited them to do: they signed a petition asking to put an issue before their fellow citizens,” Jacob said in a statement.
“When the Board of State Canvassers failed them, we turned to the Michigan Supreme Court expecting our state’s highest court to diligently protect the constitutional rights of Michigan voters.”
With both courts declining to intervene, the campaign has exhausted its legal options for the November election.
The Board of State Canvassers is scheduled to meet Friday morning, hours before the deadline to finalize the statewide ballot. There is no indication the board will reconsider the proposal.
Americans for Citizen Voting says it will now turn its attention toward another effort in 2028.
