GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — As voters head to the polls for Michigan's presidential primary, there's one option on the ballot that you may not have noticed.
Now, the "uncommitted" option is getting a lot more attention on the Democratic ballot as some say they believe it's their best choice amid President Biden's seemingly smooth path to the nomination.
Those include voters angered by Biden's handling of the Israel-Hamas war.
The Biden administration's tactics, they believe, offer too much support to the Israeli government that is currently conducting military operations in the Gaza Strip and that these voters believe is showing too little regard for the lives of civilians in the region.
"What we're noticing here in Michigan is that there is a whole swath of us people who are looking at our president and his handling of the situation in Gaza and thinking, 'This is not the way.'" said Abbas Alawieh, a spokesperson for the group Listen to Michigan that is encouraging voters to choose "uncommitted" on their primary ballots.
Regardless of how many they are able to reach, Alawieh said the campaign is about a message.
"We're going to show up to the polls and vote uncommitted to send a message to President Biden that, you know, he is on track to hand the presidency to former President Donald Trump unless he takes a different approach," Alawieh said. "He's lost votes here in Michigan that he needs to try and win back by taking a different policy approach to the situation in Gaza."
But what does voting "uncommitted" actually mean?
The answer to that lies in the proceedings of the Democratic Party's national convention that will be held this summer in Chicago to choose one presidential nominee for November.
When voting "uncommitted" at the ballot box, it means that the person is voting to send delegates to the national party convention who are not committed to a specific candidate.
As the Democratic Party's rules currently stand, Michigan will have 139 delegates going to the national convention in Chicago.
117 of those will be delegates that will be pledged to a certain candidate, based on the results of the Feb. 27 primary. The other 22 will be what are often referred to as "superdelegates" - those with the power to vote for a candidate to be the nominee, but not pledged to anyone in particular.
However, if enough voters opted for the "uncommitted" option, delegates that would otherwise be pledged to a certain candidate would instead go to the convention this summer uncommitted to any particular candidate.
"Realistically, we're talking under a dozen people," Calvin University political science professor Doug Koopman said. "Outside the greatest expectation, there would be, you know, ten or 12 more people uncommitted at the national convention."
Biden's team met earlier this month with local officials in Dearborn - a city with a large Arab-American population where many of its officials have called for Biden to change his approach.
Now, Biden's administration is supporting its own plan regarding the ongoing conflict.
At the United Nations on Tuesday, the U.S. vetoed a resolution backed by Arab nations calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. According to the Associated Press, the U.S. has instead circulated another draft resolution in support of a temporary ceasefire - one that would be contingent on the free flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas.
When contacted regarding the growing calls for voters to choose "uncommitted," Michigan Democratic Party Chair Lavora Barnes told 13 ON YOUR SIDE that she believed Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have "kept their promises by bringing manufacturing back to our state, creating hundreds of thousands of good-paying union jobs, and bringing down health care costs for our families."
"We need to be clear-eyed about the threat Donald Trump and [Make America Great Again] Republicans pose to working people and the choice Michiganders will face at the ballot box this November: our reproductive freedoms, our economic opportunity, and our democracy are all on the line," Barnes said in her statement.
But for Alawieh, a Democratic strategist himself, he said Biden's course must change if the president is to earn votes from unsatisfied voters demanding a permanent ceasefire and an end to current military funding to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government.
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