DETROIT (WKZO-AM) — Straight-ticket voting could be available for voters this November after all, despite a new law banning it in Michigan.
Federal Judge Gershwin Drain has slapped an injunction on the implementation of the law, saying it is specifically designed to discourage voting. He also said it significantly harms African-American voters.
Attorney General Bill Schuette and Secretary of State Ruth Johnson said they plan to file an appeal early next week challenging the injunction.
“Yet another example of an overreaching activist federal judge trying to make policy,” State Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker, R-Lawton, posted on Twitter on Thursday.
Rep. Jon Hoadley, D-Kalamazoo, said the reasons given by the judge were the very reasons he voted against the bill. He says the GOP majority passed it trying to prevent damage to their reelection chances because Donald Trump will be at the head of their ticket.
The Michigan Clerks Association urged delaying any appeal until after the November election because ballots go to the printers well before the election and this is going to create a lot of uncertainty about what to include on those ballots. At some point, it will be too late to change them.
They also opposed the ban on straight-party voting without a companion bill that allows no-reason absentee voting, saying that eliminating straight party voting will mean it will take longer to vote and that will result in longer lines at the polls this November.
The injunction is just a temporary measure. Eventually there will have to be a hearing that will permit both sides to argue for and against the law. A ruling will follow, and then probably more appeals.
Hoadley doubts an appeal will be successful because the attorney general will have the additional burden of showing how allowing people to vote straight-party creates a problem that can’t wait until after the appeal goes to trial.
The ruling does not impact next month’s primary because all the candidates are running against members of their own party for places on the November ballot.
The next stop, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cinncinati.
