Nearly 700,000 Michigan citizens signed a petition to put the right to collectively bargain on the November ballot for a vote of the people. The petition was approved by the State Board of Canvassers in March. Now corporate special interests are attempting to silence the voice of working people by not even allowing a chance to vote on this important issue. Working people are facing cut after cut to their wages, health care benefits, retirement security and safety protections. The best way to fight these cuts is to protect the right of every worker to unite with one strong voice. We can't let corporate special interests hold our judges hostage. We deserve a chance to vote. - Ashley Forsberg, RN Sparrow Hospital in Lansing

Congressional health and pension benefits should be the same as the laws that they pass.

The Republican and Democratic Parties control the presidential debates and exclude third party candidates. This is anti-thetical to democracy. We petition the Commission on Presidential Debates to allow Jill Stein to participate in all of the presidential debates this year.

We all are affected

Our government is broken. We need to take the money that is being used to buy our representatives out of politics.

We need to end electoral colleges so that the people's votes count directly. If this is a country of the people, for the people, and by the people then why don't our votes for president count directly? This petition is to start a bill to abolish electoral colleges that can vote against the popular vote and create a national popular vote to prevent swing states from influecing national elections. If all men are created equal our votes should count equally.

I don't know about you, but I am fed up with all the ads we are bombarded with during our election process. The only way these campaigning tactics have affected me is to discourage me from even voting. Let's put We The People back in our election process and demand that Congress pass a bill mandating that all candidates raise non-partisan promotional funds which can only be used to educate and inform rather than attack and demean so that ALL American citizens are allowed the freedom to choose who they wish to see in office.

Any campaign contributions must be disclosed by individual and amount.

Currently, most states employ a "winner-take-all" approach to the electoral college, so that if a presidential candidate gets the majority of the votes in a state, he or she receives all of the electoral votes for that state. As a result, candidates tend to focus only on swing states in campaigns.

The Citizens United decision has opened the floodgates for corporations and non-profit groups to pour undocumented and unlimited amounts of money into campaign advertising. This ruling has all but silenced the voice of citizens in favor of non-human entities.

Next year, The U.S. Senate will once again be nearly evenly split between Democrats and Republicans. But without 60 votes, neither party can pass any meaningful legislation. To help break the gridlock in Washington, the leaders of both parties in the U.S. Senate should commit themselves NOW to adopting new Senate rules in January 2013 to end the filibuster, no matter which party gains control of the Senate in the November elections.

This petition allows the public to submit, on the national elections, a bill that citizens vote on that states the congress must abide by the same laws and regulations that all citizens do in relation to social security, pensions, and healthcare. Why should they have all the rich benefits that many of us have to sacrifice once we are retired from a job? I think this should be a vote decided on by the people. Let them go on social security after their exit from congress, and find their own healthcare.