Various voting rights advocacy groups gathered 669,972 signatures, enough for the amendment to be placed on the 2022 ballot.

On August 31, the Board of State Canvassers, responsible for determining whether candidates and initiatives should be placed on the ballot, deadlocked 2-2, with challengers arguing that the ballot title of the initiative was misleading.

On September 9, the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the initiative should be placed on the November ballot.

The recount was spearheaded by Jerome Jay Allen of the conservative group Election Integrity Fund and Force.

This led to calls to tighten recount rules to disallow or make more expensive for those request them, frivolous recounts with no chance of changing the vote outcome.