The Americans for Citizens Voting petition would repeat the rule in capital letters: “ONLY CITIZENS ARE QUALIFIED TO VOTE IN ELECTIONS.” That language was real. It was not all the petition did. (Official petition)

A Just the News report carrying Center Square copy called it a “citizen-only voting proposal.” Its opening said the measure “would require voters to be U.S. citizens.” The article also mentioned regular voter-roll reviews and photo identification.

Those were parts of the proposal. The report did not mention several other provisions.

The amendment would:

  • Require citizenship verification for all voters through a statewide program, submitted documents or provisional voting.
  • Use birth certificates, passports and other documents as proof.
  • Remove noncitizens from the rolls after notice and a 45-day opportunity to rebut the finding.
  • Track federal eligibility separately from state and local eligibility.
  • Change identification rules and remove the affidavit alternative.
  • Beginning November 2, 2027, prohibit counting a ballot from a voter whose citizenship remained unverified unless documents were shown to an election administrator within six days.

The last provision concerned actual ballots. Ballots are sometimes treated as a secondary detail in election stories. They remain stubbornly involved.

There were two separate questions.

First: Who is legally eligible to vote?

Citizens. That was already the rule.

Second: How would citizenship be verified, and what would happen when verification was incomplete?

That was the proposed change. Votebeat described it more specifically as a measure that would “require Michigan voters to prove they are U.S. citizens.”

The available sources do not establish how many otherwise eligible voters lack ready access to the necessary documents. They also do not settle the proposal’s full administrative consequences. There is no sound number to put there. An empty space is not improved by confidence.

The certification story had its own unfinished parts. On August 24, 2026, the Board of State Canvassers deadlocked 2–2. The Secretary of State’s August 17 staff report recorded 612 valid signatures in a 1,000-signature sample and recommended insufficiency. Later coverage from Votebeat and MLive reported a meeting-end tally of about 626, below the 629 needed, though the precise handling of final affidavits remained unclear. The campaign pursued court relief. The available record does not establish a later court result or final ballot qualification.

Citizenship was the existing qualification. Documentary verification, deadlines and the ballot-counting rule were the proposed additions.

Here, the paperwork was the policy.