Brandi Purtill’s commitment to community action comes from an easily explainable place: her own life experiences.
“I grew up raised by a 14-year-old single mother,” Purtill said. “I lived through firsthand and saw up close how policy decisions affect people. It has kind of stuck with me, and when I had children and met my partner, who is in the operators union, 11 years ago, that gives me a view of how working families carry the weight of policy decisions.”
Purtill is involved with People Powered Flint, a local hub of People Powered, which has chapters around the world focused on spreading participatory democracy, or direct participation of community members in policy decisions. Locally, the Flint group has focused heavily on collecting signatures for three key ballot initiatives in Michigan.
Rank MI Vote would bring ranked choice voting to Michigan. Currently, about 17 states use some form of ranked choice voting in some elections. This type of voting lets voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no one earns more than 50 percent of first-choice votes, the lowest-ranked candidate is eliminated and those ballots move to the voter’s next choice. This continues until a candidate secures a majority.
Proponents say this type of system better serves voters by reducing pressure to choose between only two candidates, encourages more diverse candidates to run, ensures winners have majority support rather than just a plurality, and leads to more representative outcomes. It also rewards coalition-building and positive campaigning, increasing accountability of candidates to voters. If enacted in Michigan, it would bring ranked choice voting to major party primaries for presidential, governor, and U.S. House and Senate elections; general elections for president, governor, U.S. House and Senate, attorney general, and secretary of state; straight-ticket voting (voters would rank parties, and those rankings would carry down the ballot); and it would allow for local and state legislature adoption.
Michiganders for Money Out of Politics is attempting to ban political contributions from monopoly utilities and state contractors, in order to limit the influence of corporate, monied interests in state government.
Invest in MI Kids would increase taxes on high earners, with that tax revenue going directly to public schools. The proposal would let voters decide on a state constitutional amendment that, beginning in 2027, would add an additional 5 percent on taxable income over $1 million for joint filers or $500,000 for single filers. That tax, along with existing state income taxes, would be deposited into the State School Aid Fund and be used exclusively toward local school district classrooms, career and technical education, class size reduction efforts, and teacher recruitment and retention.
“We (People Powered Flint) want to make an impact directly in our community by helping people make decisions about things like the ballot initiatives, school policies, and different things like that,” Purtill said.
Purtill also noted that People Powered works closely with other local groups of activists, including Indivisible GLOW, a local chapter of the international Indivisible organization, and the Flint Bridge Brigade.
“There’s so many grassroots organizations in the area that are doing really great work,” Purtill said. “There are people from lots of backgrounds, from every corner of Genesee County. Just being involved with all these groups is really what pushes me forward.”
For many local activists and organizations, something as simple as finding communities of everyday people who are passionate about the same causes and fighting back against things like unjust immigration enforcement, cuts to services that support needy people and families, rollbacks to protections for marginalized people, and other forms of government overreach has been a major positive of the work they’re doing.
“The future of the children in this country keeps me going, because my fear is we are seeing humanity minimized and marginalized, and then their experiences are dismissed,” Purtill said. “I believe that diversity is education. If we take that away, we create a really small-minded society of copy and paste people who never learn from one another. The resilience of Flint is really inspiring to me. The civil rights organizations here, the cultural richness of the city, things like that deserve to be protected. We’re building communities, we’re building coalitions.”
Purtill said others interested in connecting with People Powered Flint or getting involved in work they’re doing can contact them through their Instagram page. She noted that just finding other people invested in causes you are passionate about is an important step.
“Finding community, it really just provides you with hope and with something you can touch and feel and see that makes you realize that even a little effort makes a big difference,” Purtill said. “When we all come together as a whole, as a coalition of people instead of just individuals, that makes the largest impact. These issues don’t move forward unless people stay engaged.”
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to catch up on all of our headlines every Tuesday.
