2 of 4 East Lansing Ballot Proposals Pass in Midterm Election

East Lansing voters split their decision Tuesday night, approving exactly half of the four ballot measures on the midterm ballot while rejecting the other two, The State News reported. The results arrived quickly, with the Associated Press calling the statewide races before 10 p.m. and the city charter amendments tallying margins.

Statewide, voters embraced limits on corporate political spending while declining to open the state constitution for a rare convention. In East Lansing, residents backed a new healthcare advisory body but refused to shift city elections onto even-year cycles.

Money in politics passes; constitutional convention fails

Proposal II, the citizen-initiated measure dubbed “Michiganders for Money Out of Politics,” passed by a 62-point margin. The Associated Press called the race at 9:38 p.m., with less than 10% of the vote counted. The proposal will now prohibit campaign contributions from certain regulated utility companies and from government contractors holding more than $250,000 annually in government contracts. It also bars certain individuals and organizations associated with those contractors and utilities from making specified campaign contributions.

The victory immediately triggered legal resistance. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy filed a federal lawsuit challenging the measure on First Amendment grounds, arguing that the ballot proposal violates free speech and threatens financial privacy. This was not the first legal threat the proposal faced. Protect MI Free Speech had filed a lawsuit against the Board of State Canvassers in August, contending that the measure had not met the threshold of valid signatures required to appear on the ballot. The Michigan Supreme Court declined to hear that challenge in September.

Proposal I, by contrast, failed by a 50-point margin. The Associated Press confirmed the result at 9:40 p.m. with only 15% of the vote in. The measure asked voters whether to call a constitutional convention to amend the state constitution. Such a question appears automatically every 16 years, yet Michigan has not convened a constitutional convention in 65 years. Residents once again declined the offer.

Healthcare advisory group approved; election timing rejected

East Lansing’s first charter amendment passed with 9,663 votes, representing 73.81% support. The amendment requires the city charter to create an advisory group to the City Council regarding healthcare. The Citizens’ Advisory Healthcare Action Committee will gather information about East Lansing’s healthcare and make recommendations to the council, which will appoint its members. Those appointees will then be tasked with creating a Healthcare Action Plan for the city.

The second charter amendment was rejected, drawing 6,645 votes at 51.2% against and 6,318 votes at 48.7% in favor. Had it passed, the proposal would have altered the city’s election cycle by shifting local elections to even-numbered years and merging them with congressional and presidential contests. The citizen initiative’s opponents included East Lansing’s current Mayor, Erik Altmann, along with Councilman Mark Meadows and Councilman Steve Whelan. They worried that moving local elections on-cycle would complicate local politics, raising the cost of city council races and potentially forcing candidates to run on a party slate when local elections are currently nonpartisan. Proponents countered that aligning with higher-turnout years would increase voter participation, elect more diverse candidates, and hold sitting members more accountable.

The legal fight over Proposal II now moves to federal court, while East Lansing prepares to seat its new healthcare committee.