About

What we do and why we do it:

In 2018, Promote the Vote wrote a ballot proposal to ensure Michigan had a voting system that worked for all of us, which became Proposal 3 of 2018. Proposal 3 was a common-sense approach to removing barriers to voting, safeguarding Michigan’s elections and putting voters first.

Promote the Vote led the successful campaign to pass Proposal 3, along with the support of over 60 partner organizations and 125 grasstop leaders. In November 2018, the voters of Michigan passed Proposal 3. More than two-thirds of voters statewide supported it. In fact, 80 of Michigan’s 83 counties voted for Proposal 3, indicating widespread support across the state and political spectrum for increasing access to the ballot.

Many of the organizations that make up Promote the Vote also have a rich history of public education and advocacy around redistricting and the need for redistricting reform, and some have also played a principal role in advocacy, education and even litigation regarding partisan gerrymandering. PTV also worked to support the passage of Proposal 2 of 2018, the proposal that created Michigan’s Independent Citizen Redistricting Commission.

What we believe:

We believe we can increase the power of people by ensuring Michigan has a voting system that works for all of us and fair legislative maps upon which to elect our leaders. Our democracy works best when all our voices are heard.

Who we are:

Promote the Vote is a coalition of organizations and individuals committed to increasing the power of the people in our democracy.

President, Khalilah Spencer

Secretary, Gilda Jacobs

Treasurer, Judy Karandjeff

Dessa Cosma

Cindy Gamboa

David Hecker

Rebeka Islam

Chui Karega

Meredith Kennedy

Rima Meroueh

Christina Schlitt

Sue Smith

Branden Snyder

Shelli Weisberg

A graduate of the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Sociology, Micheal has led statewide electoral operations and coordinated advocacy campaigns, locally and across the country for the last 15+ years. Micheal joins PTV after cultivating young leaders and building organizational capacity with the Ann Arbor’s Community Action Network and the AmeriCorps VISTA, where he drove the AAPS Youth Empowerment Project. He then joined State Voices, where he led efforts to support civic engagement on a national level.

In the decade since, Micheal has been active in advancing workers’ rights, including electoral campaigns within the labor movement, serving as the Political Director for the Michigan AFL-CIO and leading the outreach and expansion of its organizing department. Micheal is thrilled to lead the Promote the Vote team and to continue the fight to ensure fair democratic elections and practices in Michigan for years to come.

Sharon Dolente is the Senior Advisor at Promote the Vote. Sharon is an expert on voting and elections with fifteen years of experience defending access to the ballot in Michigan. As their Voting Rights Strategist, Sharon led the ACLU of Michigan’s work on Proposal 3 of 2018, which transformed access to the ballot in Michigan. In 2020, Sharon managed the largest nonpartisan election protection program Michigan has ever had, with the goals of expanding the electorate and eliminating disparities in civic participation. Sharon served on Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s Election Modernization Advisory Committee. Sharon also has a decade of experiencing as an attorney in private practice in employment and civil rights matters.

Shira Roza is Promote the Vote’s Election Protection Director. She manages the organization’s efforts to expand access to the ballot and eliminate disparities in civic participation.

Shira comes to PTV with more than 15 years of experience as a voting rights advocate, an attorney, and an organizer and regional director for national and statewide electoral campaigns. Most recently, she managed the rapid response program for Michigan’s 2020 nonpartisan election protection program. She has a J.D. and an M.S. in Social Policy from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Shira is eager to work with PTV and its coalition partners to ensure that all eligible Michiganders have free and fair access to the ballot.

Mackenzie Walz is Promote the Vote’s Voting Rights Legal Fellow. She assists PTV’s Election Protection Director in carrying out the organization’s efforts to expand ballot access and eliminate inequalities in the electoral process. She comes to Promote the Vote with five years of experience as an Election Inspector in Oakland County, Michigan, and two years of legal experience as a law clerk on the D.C. Superior Court. She has a J.D. and B.A. from the University of Michigan. While at the University of Michigan Law School, Mackenzie served as a legal intern at the ACLU of North Carolina and the Fair Elections Center, as Pro Bono Chair of the Michigan Voting Project, and as a Student Director for Professor Ellen Katz’s Voting Rights Initiative.

A graduate of Xavier University, with Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and History, and the University of Toledo College of Law, Scott joins Promote the Vote after over a decade of political campaign experience in Cincinnati and the Southern Ohio region. Having managed issue campaigns, City Council, Judicial and Congressional races, Scott has seen, first hand, the importance access to the ballot has on all communities and backgrounds. Scott joins the Promote the Vote team as the Election Protection Program Manager to ensure everyone has unfettered access to the ballot box to exercise their Constitutional right to vote.