Town halls look to educate voters and volunteers on proposed Michigan ballot initiative to ban political spending by utilities ahead of canvassing board decision on petition language.

A ballot committee that aims to block DTE Energy, Consumers Energy, and other companies from making political donations is hosting town halls across the state ahead of an Aug. 22 meeting of Michigan’s Board of State Canvassers where its initiative could clear the next hurdle to reach the November 2026 ballot.

Taylor resident Nancy Johnson plans on volunteering with the group Voters Not Politicians to collect signatures for the effort. She told Planet Detroit she has experienced six power outages in the last year, but said utilities like DTE are blocking progress on reliability while rates go up.

“These companies that are giving money to the politicians are the ones whose voices are being heard,” she said. “We want to make sure that that doesn’t continue.”

Johnson and around 10 others met at the Southgate Veterans Memorial Library last week for an information session on the Michiganders for Money out of Politics, or MMOP, ballot initiative, in one of over a dozen town halls being held across the state.