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Michigan AG takes fight against straight-ticket voting to U.S. Supreme Court

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Cripplecreek:
By Brad Devereaux | bdeverea@mlive.com
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on September 02, 2016 at 1:51 PM, updated September 02, 2016 at 3:47 PM

The latest in a line of emergency motions filed in an attempt to block straight-ticket voting, Michigan Attorney Bill Schuette is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.

Schuette made an emergency filing Friday, Sept. 2, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to stay a preliminary injunction a federal court issued against Michigan's law that blocks the practice of straight-ticket voting.

The filing asks the Supreme Court to stay the preliminary injunction pending a "merits decision" by the Court of Appeals.

"Michigan has joined 40 other states by requiring voters to actually vote for each candidate they intend to support—in other words, by eliminating straight-ticket voting. This change is not a burden on voting—it is the very act of voting," the motion reads.

It was filed as an emergency appeal with a request for a decision by Thursday, Sept. 8, to allow time for election officials to move forward with printing ballots for the November elections.

By law, the ballot wording for the nonpartisan-statewide proposals are required to be certified to the county clerks by next Friday, Sept. 9, the motion states.

A lawsuit was filed in the wake of Michigan's new law, signed in January by Gov. Rick Snyder, that banned straight-ticket voting. Earlier this year, a a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on the state's ban of the practice.

Straight ticket voting allows voters voters to select all members of a particular party by filling in a single bubble instead of selecting individual candidates on the ballot.

Schuette, on behalf of Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, filed emergency motions in August in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in an attempt to reinstate enforcement of the law, and a panel of judges denied both in August.

On Thursday, Aug. 18, Schuette filed another emergency motion for appeal with the court of appeals, seeking an initial hearing "en banc," or in front of all the judges of the court, rather than a selected panel.

The court denied the motion Thursday, Sept. 1, and Schuette fired back with his latest filing in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The lawsuit, filed in May by the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a black labor organization labor, argues that the law disproportionately impacts African-Americans, who are more likely to vote a straight-party ticket.

The Michigan Democratic Party issued a statement on behalf of Party Chair Brandon Dillon, about the Supreme Court filing:

"Bill Schuette is a desperate man who will stop at nothing to waste taxpayer dollars and jeopardize the fairness and integrity of our elections, all in an effort to please his big-money GOP donors, like Ron Weiser, who also happens to be running for statewide office himself.

"He's gone against the will of Michigan voters, he's ignored three separate rulings by federal judges, including the entire Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and now he's gone beyond the pale with his personal crusade to strip Michigan voters of the right to vote straight ticket.

"Voters will remember how Bill Schuette is always on duty for his Republican friends, even at the expense of the people of Michigan."

The case implicates the upcoming November election and the constitutionality of a democratically enacted statute, Schuette's has argued.

Read the application for stay filed at U.S. Supreme Court

http://media.mlive.com/news_impact/other/Application%20for%20Stay%20-%20straight-ticket%20voting%20(final).pdf

Cripplecreek:
The democrats really don't like the idea of people having to actually think about each name on the ballot. They're apparently afraid their voters will be too lazy to vote beyond the top of the ticket.

I'm obviously not a Trump guy but getting rid of the straight ticket box on the ballot would be the best thing to happen for him in Michigan.

Crazieman:
To those that don't want to do research, it does not ban voting all straight ticket, it bans a literal checkbox that means "straight ticket".

Cripplecreek:
I generally vote straight ticket but skip the straight ticket box and make each individual selection.

Democrats love their 5 second voters who just check the D box and walk away.

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