| Uncommitted votes give the public the opportunity to still take part in the democratic process and place a party vote without putting their support behind any candidate. It counts just as much as a vote for a specific person, and is an effective way to put pressure on politicians. And that is what happened in Michigan. The campaign for the uncommitted vote In Michigan, the US state with the highest Arab American population, organisers directed the growing and palpable discontent with the US straight at Biden. They were initially hoping for 10,000 votes, which is just under the margin that Trump won in the state in 2016. In just over three weeks and with limited resources, activists went to mosques, college campuses and schools; they hosted rallies, phone banked and knocked on doors. Their efforts worked: 100,0000 people joined the “uncommitted movement”. “People were genuinely quite shocked to see just how many people turned out for it,” Oliver says. “What it has done, ultimately, is tap into a broader critique that exists not just among Arab American or Muslim populations in Michigan, but among progressive voters and the Democratic party more broadly.” Oliver went all over the state to communities outside of large cities like Detroit, to get a sense of what the mood was like there. He says these conversations were already happening in smaller cities and more rural areas, and they seem to be independent of the formal campaign in the state capital. “Members of the Democratic party we talked to were well aware [that voting uncommitted] was an option available to them, and many were going to do it having not received a phone call or any literature from the campaign,” Oliver says. It is this combination of well-coordinated and dedicated grassroots mobilisation, alongside word-of-mouth dissemination and broader frustration at the party, that has allowed this movement to gain momentum. Could this happen elsewhere? There is no real way to predict whether events in Michigan will be replicated successfully, and only a handful of other states have uncommitted as an option on the ballot. The Democrats also missed the mark a few times in the run up to this election, most notably when the state’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, said an uncommitted vote was essentially a vote for Trump. “That went down like a lead balloon,” Oliver says. “Many of the organisers that I spoke to found it deeply patronising, especially as these are clearly very engaged citizens who are mobilising on a single issue they care passionately about.” The discontent towards Biden and his administration is widespread. Activists had flown in from all over the country to see what was happening in Michigan and there is already a campaign mounting in Minnesota. If what happened in Michigan is anything to go by, it shows that these movements can evolve rapidly and can accrue real power in a matter of weeks. “It shows more chances of expanding than contracting. But we just have to wait and see what happens,” Oliver says. The reaction from the Democrats Even though Joe Biden chose not to reference the uncommitted vote in his victory speech, there is concern from those in the party about the level and depth of anger about the war in Gaza and the government’s stance on it. A senior campaign adviser reportedly told Reuters that the Democrats “are getting hurt more than we anticipated” over the issue. Many are saying it would be extremely unwise to ignore this groundswell, especially as the margins for electoral victory in November are likely to be slim. In 2020, Biden won Michigan by 150,000 votes – two-thirds of that vote opted to throw their support behind the uncommitted movement this time around. “If this movement continues to balloon, it would not fare well for the Democrats come November,” Oliver says. He does not think that the movement is going to go away any time soon either. “These are extremely active, organised younger voters who turned out to vote for Biden in 2020 and if they’re not going to do that, again, in swing states, that’s going to have real consequences.” | 