History tells us 2 in 5 Michiganders will not vote in this year’s midterm elections. But one island off the eastern tip of the Upper Peninsula is hoping to change that.
Going to the polls in Drummond Island Township isn’t easy. There’s only one precinct for its 134 square miles. And that’s just for Election Day. Early in-person voting isn’t on the island. It’s in Kincheloe, on the Upper Peninsula mainland.
“That is a 50-mile one-way trip off the island,” Drummond Island Township Supervisor Krystal Truax said. "So, you have the ferry fare plus the time, plus the hour there, then you vote, then the hour back, [then] back on to the ferry.”
A little over a thousand registered voters live on the island. They usually beat statewide turnout. In the 2024 presidential election, 74% of residents showed up. During the 2022 midterms, 63% came out.
This year, Truax is joining an effort to get everyone out to the polls — all 1,116 of them.
“My thought is that if we can do it, anyone can do it, because we have so many real barriers keeping us away from early voting, from voting in person,” she said.
The campaign started with technology entrepreneur Bob Chunn, who moved to the island with his wife during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chunn got involved in politics because he felt discouraged after the 2016 election. Chunn created a nonprofit to turn out the vote by providing voters with information. Now, he’s testing a new strategy on the island.
“It’s kind of an experiment to see how high you can push the envelope. The bar is pretty darn low in my view,” he said.
The plan involves sending reminders, knocking on doors, and helping organize rides to the polls.
Chunn said Drummond Island is a tightknit community. He's finding people who could personally reach out to folks who haven't voted in recent years.
When he meets people who feel turned off by politics, Chunn focuses on what’s happening locally. For example, he’s promoted a school millage on the ballot.
“Immediately, when people start talking about Washington, Lansing, they don’t like politicians, I’m saying skip all that. Don’t vote for any of it. But vote for the millage, the schools,” Chunn said.
That’s the message Chunn and his co-organizers spread this month at a town hall event. There, resident Tom Salwoski volunteered to share his reason for staying home in past elections.
Salwoski felt like his vote didn’t matter. Especially amid the slew of negative ads and politicians talking about issues far from home.
“Everything feels national. Even the ads that are local to Michigan, those are all about Trump or the Republican party,” Salwoski said. “They’re kind of all lumped into the national with everything. And so, that’s another turn off.”
But hearing about the millages and local races that are also on the ballot changed his mind. He said he hadn’t learned too much about those in the past.
Knowing that he could be the deciding factor for a local millage or township race resonated with him.
“It’s all stuff that I heard about but just never understood it. So now that I understand a little bit more, I feel more comfortable about going down the ballot and learning a little bit more, which I wasn’t really open to before,” Salwoski said.
As the adage goes, all politics is local. With each Drummond Island resident the volunteers reach with that message, the hope is that they tick up voter turnout and set an example for the rest of the state.
One local issue at a time.
