A federal appeals court rejected efforts by Michigan officials to preserve a ban on straight-party voting through the coming elections. The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined on Wednesday to stand in the way of a July ruling by a federal trial judge, who pronounced the Republican-backed ban, passed in 2015, an unconstitutional burden on voting rights, particularly those of African-Americans. The ruling means that straight-party voting — which allows people to vote for candidates of their desired political party by making a single mark rather than voting for each candidate individually — almost certainly will be an option on ballots come November.
U.S. District Court Judge Gershwin Drain ruled that the 2015 law would create voter confusion and disproportionately burdened black voters, who use it at higher rates than white voters in Michigan, according to research cited in his opinion. The lawsuit challenging the 2015 ban was filed by the Michigan chapter of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a civil-rights group affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
His ruling, which prohibited Michigan from enforcing the law, at least until the case reached a final outcome, was among a cluster of opinions by federal courts last month that suspended or struck down voting restrictions passed by mostly Republican-controlled legislatures.
Michigan officials asked the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to suspend Judge Drain’s ruling while they mounted their appeal. Had the appeals court granted the stay, the law likely would have remained in effect for the November elections.
Full Article: Appeals Court: Michigan Must Allow Straight-Ticket Voting in November – Law Blog – WSJ.