Michigan: Ballot selfie ban stirs court challenge | The Detroit News

Social media and the sanctity of the voting place are colliding in Michigan, where a Portage man is asserting a constitutional right to take “ballot selfies” by challenging the state’s long-standing ban on voting station and polling place photography. Joel Crookston, 32, sued the state in Grand Rapids federal court last month, arguing his First Amendment right to free speech was unconstitutionally limited by state law and policies designed to discourage voter intimidation. “State law and orders from the Secretary of State threaten Crookston and all Michigan voters with forfeiting their votes, fines and even imprisonment for this simple, effective act of political speech,” attorney Stephen Klein wrote in a request for a preliminary injunction filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan.

Michigan: Lawmaker moves to repeal straight-ticket voting ban | MLive

A Democratic representative is asking the legislature to formally undo its recent ban on straight-ticket voting, he said in a press release on Tuesday. Lawmakers passed a ban on straight ticket voting — where voters can select a single option to vote for all Republican or all Democratic candidates — late last year. Gov. Snyder signed the bill in January. But the new law has been embroiled in a lawsuit, and a federal court issued an injunction that blocks it from going into effect. The U.S. Supreme Court last week elected not to stay that order, meaning straight-ticket voting will be an option for Michiganders on November’s ballot. But long-term a full trial, expected to take place within the next year, will determine the law’s fate. In the meantime Rep. Jon Hoadley, D-Kalamazoo, is urging the legislature to undo the law it just did.

Michigan: Supreme Court rejects Michigan ban on straight-ticket voting | The Washington Post

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to allow Michigan to ban voters from casting straight-ticket ballots in the coming election after lower courts found the prohibition was likely to discriminate against African Americans and result in long lines at the polls. The justices declined to get involved in a political controversy that began when the state’s Republican leadership passed a bill to end 125 years of straight-ticket voting, which allows a voter to vote for all candidates of a desired party by taking a single action. The Supreme Court gave no reason for its decision for turning down Michigan’s request that it be allowed to enforce the ban. But it was another sign that it will be difficult for those bringing election controversies to the court in advance of November to prevail. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. said they would have granted the state’s request.

Michigan: Half of Michigan voters used straight-ticket ballot option in 2012 | MLive

About half of Michigan voters used the straight-ticket ballot option in the 2012 presidential election, an MLive survey of county election officials found. About 30 percent of 2012 voters supported the Democratic ticket; 19 percent, the Republican ticket and 1 percent voted straight ticket for a third party. The numbers are based on statistics from 33 Michigan counties that collectively accounted for 85 percent of the 4.5 million ballots cast statewide in 2012. MLive contacted election officials from all 83 Michigan counties, but many did not have the 2012 breakdown for straight-ticket voting, which allows filling out a single bubble to vote for all candidates of one party. About half of Michigan voters used the straight-ticket option in the last presidential election. However, MLive was able to get the data for the state’s largest counties, including Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Kent, Genesee, Washtenaw, Ingham, Ottawa, Kalamazoo, Saginaw, Livingston, Muskegon, Jackson, Allegan and Bay, as well as 18 smaller counties.

Michigan: Supporters ask justices to allow straight-ticket voting | The Detroit News

Opponents of Michigan’s new straight ticket-voting ban asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to reject Attorney General Bill Schuette’s emergency appeal, predicting “massive confusion and even longer lines at polling places” if the state’s ban is enforced. The prohibition on letting voters fill in one bubble for all Democratic or all Republican candidates on the Nov. 8 ballot would deter African-American voters in particular, attorneys for the plaintiffs argued. “Millions of voters of all parties use it, have come to depend on it, and expect to be able to use it again this November,” the lawyers wrote in a brief filed Wednesday, noting the state has made no effort to educate voters that straight-party voting would not be available this fall. The lawyers include Mark Brewer, a Southfield attorney who is the former Michigan Democratic Party chairman.

Michigan: Attorney General takes fight against straight-ticket voting to U.S. Supreme Court | MLive.com

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: Straight-ticket voting likely after court loss | The Detroit News

Michigan voters would continue to have the option to cast a straight-ticket ballot this fall under a Thursday ruling from the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The federal appeals court denied Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s request for an “en banc” hearing over a suspended state law that would eliminate straight-ticket voting, saying a majority of judges had not voted to reconsider a recent panel decision. The decision was bemoaned by Republican legislators, who approved the law on the grounds it would encourage a more informed electorate, but celebrated as a voting rights victory by Democrats who predicted the straight-ticket ban would have led to longer lines on Election Day. Detroit U.S. District Judge Gershwin A. Drain first struck down the straight-ticket ban in July, ruling it would reduce African-Americans’ opportunity to participate in the political process and put a disproportionate burden on African-Americans’ right to vote.

Michigan: Appeals Court: Michigan Must Allow Straight-Ticket Voting in November | Wall Street Journal

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.

Michigan: Straight-ticket fight echoes national debate | The Detroit News

Michigan’s high-stakes battle over straight-ticket voting echoes a national fight over new laws critics argue could disenfranchise minorities and affect the outcome of the 2016 elections. Much of the national debate centers on strict voter identification laws backed by Republicans as a means to curb election fraud. Federal courts recently struck down strict ID and other voting rules in North Carolina and Texas. An appeals court last week reinstated a Wisconsin version. The North Carolina law “required in-person voters to show certain photo IDs, beginning in 2016, which African-Americans disproportionately lacked, and eliminated or reduced registration and voting access tools that African Americans disproportionately used,” a three-judge appeals court panel of all Democratic appointees ruled in July. Democrats and allies have pushed legal challenges to new voting rules in several states they say could limit participation by minority voters more likely to support presidential nominee Hillary Clinton than Republican businessman Donald Trump.

Michigan: Could we have a rigged election? Tracking the vote in Michigan | Detroit Free Press

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has raised the possibility of a “rigged” election in November, although it’s unclear how he meant the comment. The director of Homeland Security is talking about placing the country’s election infrastructure under the agency’s cybersecurity apparatus. The Internet is aflame with conspiracy theories. So how would somebody go about manipulating votes? The answer: With extraordinary difficulty. There are so many sets of eyes looking at the voting process, the machinery so locked up — literally locked up — that even the savviest hacker would have difficulty cracking the code. But the biggest barriers to election fraud may be a simple piece of paper, and humble precinct workers — who are paid barely above minimum wage, but are there out of a sense of old-fashioned patriotism and service and are hell bent on doing the job right.

Michigan: Attorney General seeks to reinstate ban on straight-ticket voting for fall election | Reuters

Michigan’s attorney general has asked a federal appeals court to reinstate a law banning straight-ticket voting – the practice of using one mark to vote for all candidates from one party – in time for the November general election. The law, passed by Michigan’s majority Republican legislature and signed by Republican Governor Rick Snyder, was temporarily suspended in federal district court last month. A coalition of civil rights and labor groups had argued that it would keep African-Americans from voting. On Wednesday, Attorney General William Schuette, also a Republican, filed two emergency motions with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, saying the law would not place a burden on voters or violate the U.S. Voting Rights Act, as the coalition had alleged in a lawsuit aimed at overturning the legislation.

Michigan: State elections officials ask judge to delay straight-ticket voting ruling as they appeal | The Detroit News

State election officials are asking a federal judge to delay implementing a court order that strikes down Michigan’s new law banning straight-ticket voting while they appeal the case. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed an emergency motion late Friday asking U.S. District Court Judge Gershwin A. Drain to stay the four preliminary injunctions he issued against state election officials on July 22 that ban enforcement of the new law. Schuette, in a motion filed by his staff, said he is requesting a decision on the motion by Tuesday “due to the upcoming election deadlines, which are Aug. 16 for final ballot language for the Nov. 8 election and Sept. 24, the day all ballots must be ready to send overseas to members of the U.S. armed forces and to absentee voters. “Defendant is irreparably harmed by having a statute enacted by its elected representatives enjoined so close in time to the pending election,” Schuette wrote.

Michigan: Judge blocks Michigan ban on straight-party voting | The Detroit News

State election officials plan to appeal a court order striking down Michigan’s new law banning straight-ticket voting, potentially creating complications for the November election. Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and Secretary of State Ruth Johnson will file an appeal on Monday or Tuesday on U.S. District Court Judge Gershwin A. Drain’s decision to issue four preliminary injunctions against state election officials, Schuette spokesman John Sellek said Thursday. “We have no further comment at this time other than to confirm that we will appeal in defense of this state law as passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor,” Selleck said. In a passionate 37-page opinion announced Thursday, Drain said the new law will reduce African-Americans’ opportunity to participate in the state’s political process and puts a disproportionate burden on African-Americans’ right to vote.

Michigan: Judge urged to stop Michigan ban on straight-party voting | Associated Press

Michigan’s new ban on straight-party voting will affect turnout in the fall election, especially among minorities who will be turned off by standing in long lines and combing through a long ballot, an attorney said Thursday as she urged a judge to stop a law that was passed by Republicans. “This is an election of great consequence. … Disruption would be very damaging,” Mary Ellen Gurewitz said. Gurewitz and co-counsel Mark Brewer, the former head of the state Democratic Party, represent three people and a union-affiliated group in a lawsuit that claims the ban on straight-party voting violates the rights of minorities and the disabled. Voters no longer can choose candidates of one political party with a single mark, bringing Michigan in line with 40 other states.

Michigan: House Democrats seek to amend constitution, add ‘voter bill of rights’ | MLive

A constitutional amendment proposed by two representatives would alleviate long lines at polls by allowing no-reason absentee and early voting, they said Wednesday. Rep. Gretchen Driskell, D-Saline, and Rep. Jon Hoadley, D-Kalamazoo, introduced a “voter bill of rights” on Wednesday. The resolution would amend the constitution to allow no-reason absentee voting, early voting and automatic registration when a voter gets a driver’s license or state ID card. It would also automatically send ballots to Michiganders serving in the armed forces overseas. “To ensure that our voices are heard, and that our votes count, we need to update and modernize our elections so that they work for everyone who is eligible and exercises the right to vote. That’s why a voter bill of rights is so important,” Driskell said.

Michigan: Governor signs law restricting citizen petitions | WLNS

106,000: that’s how many more signatures the Michigan Bureau of Elections says a ballot drive needs to put legalizing marijuana up for a state-wide vote. This comes just six days after a pro-legalization group submitted more than 350,000 signatures to the state; but because MI Legalize collected a portion of them more than 180 days before filing the petition, the petition will likely not pass. This hadn’t been formally engrained in law—but today Governor Snyder changed that. That new law says petition signatures older than 180 days cannot be counted. “This clearly was a result of us trying to improve Michigan’s election system,” argues MI Legalize Executive Director Jeffrey Hank.

Michigan: New straight-ticket voting law in Michigan prompts lawsuit | MLive

A group of African American labor activists is suing in U.S. District Court to stop a new law eliminating straight-ticket voting. The Michigan A. Philip Randolph Institute is being represented by former Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer, an attorney with Southfield-based Goodman Acker P.C. The group is suing Secretary of State Ruth Johnson in her official capacity and hopes to stop enforcement before November elections, Brewer said. Public Act 268, which Gov. Rick Snyder signed in January, eliminates an option for voters to vote for all partisan positions by choosing either an all-Republican or all-Democratic option.

Michigan: Lawsuit challenges elimination of straight-ticket voting | Detroit Free Press

Eliminating straight-ticket voting is a violation of the U.S. Constitution, the Voting Rights Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit Tuesday. “Voters are going to be forced to vote the entire ballot, which will cause tremendous congestion and lines, which means people aren’t going to be able to wait to vote,” said Mark Brewer, one of the lead lawyers in the case and the former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party. “Voters will be disenfranchised, and this is going to be particularly bad in African-American voting precincts.” Straight-ticket voting allows voters to fill in one box on the ballot to support all Democrats or all Republicans all the way down the ballot. Local clerks have said the option has helped speed voting lines, which tend to get quite long, especially in urban areas during presidential election years. In 2008, voters in Detroit reported lines that lasted more than two hours.

Michigan: Labor unions sue state of Michigan over election law | Detroit Free Press

A coalition of labor unions sued the State of Michigan in U.S. District Court in Detroit on Friday over a law that allows corporations, but not unions, to use payroll deductions for contributions to political action committees. The sweeping law was one of the final ones passed in last year’s legislative session, after it transformed from an innocuous bill on campaign finance law into a 53-page wholesale revision of campaign finance law. One of the provisions allows corporations to use payroll deductions for employees to make contributions to the business’ political action committee. But it also prohibits unions from having the companies where their members work make payroll deductions for the union’s PAC.

Michigan: Recall Effort in Michigan Intensifies Pressure on Gov. Rick Snyder | The New York Times

Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan hired a law firm using up to $800,000 in taxpayer money to help his administration navigate through a throng of civil and criminal investigations. Both candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination have called for him to resign. On Thursday he faces a grilling by a congressional committee in Washington. And as voters went to the polls on the state’s Primary Day last Tuesday, a group led by a Detroit pastor began an effort to recall him in a statewide referendum, a repeat of the movement that in 2012 targeted a fellow Republican, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin. For a man who swept into office in 2010 by promoting his résumé as a no-nonsense accountant and businessman who was above politics, Governor Snyder now finds himself in the middle of the kind of bitter partisan warfare that he has long disdained. Many Michigan voters now blame him for how he handled two of the state’s biggest debacles, the tainted water crisis in Flint and the tattered Detroit public schools.

Michigan: Primary ballot snafus arise in Detroit | The Detroit News

Balloting problems came to light in Detroit on Wednesday, one day after U.S. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders pulled off a shocking upset of front-runner Hillary Clinton in the Michigan Democratic primary. Wayne County Board of Canvassers officials discovered that a handful of Detroit precincts registered zero votes during balloting. Memory cards for three precincts showed no votes cast, while five absentee ballot precincts were uploaded Wednesday as zero, acknowledged Daniel Baxter, director of Detroit elections. Canvassers will have to review the ballots in those precincts, but Baxter said they’re unlikely to change the results. Sanders won the statewide contest by 18,350 votes — 595,073 to 576,723 — and the precincts at issue had about 1,500 votes, Baxter said. Another estimate at the canvassers meeting put the tally at closer to 5,000 voters. “This will have no effect on the outcome,” Baxter said.

Michigan: Secretary Johnson backs plan to replace election equipment in governor’s budget | UP Matters

Secretary of State Ruth Johnson issued the following statement regarding the governor’s budget proposal announced today that calls for $10 million in state support to help local communities buy new election equipment: “I appreciate Governor Snyder’s commitment to upgrading our state’s aging election equipment. I look forward to working with lawmakers now to win their support for this reasonable plan, and I encourage city and township leaders to offer their support as well. Our election equipment has served us well, but we should act before we start seeing widespread equipment failures as the machines reach the end of their useful life.”

Michigan: State error prompts voter cancellation notices | The Detroit News

Hundreds of Michigan voters were mistakenly sent “notices of cancellation” last month challenging their voter registration status, according to the Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s office, which is taking steps to correct the error. Bureau of Elections Director Chris Thomas told The Detroit News “a few hundred” voters who left Michigan but later returned were flagged in the Interstate Crosscheck system, which 29 states use to identify fraud and clean up their voter rolls. The bureau alerted local clerks on Friday and is preparing to send letters to affected voters telling them to disregard any notices they received. “Nobody has been canceled, and nobody’s voting rights from 2016 would be affected by this,” Thomas said. “In fact, none of these people could have been affected until January 2019 at the earliest.”

Michigan: Clerks weigh in on legislation to eliminate straight party voting | Source Newspapers

The signing by Gov. Rick Snyder of legislation to eliminate straight party voting in Michigan on Jan. 5 has received support from some local clerks, who say the measure would force voters to “do their homework” about individual candidates instead of automatically voting for all Democrats or all Republicans on the ballot, while others criticize the bill. “It takes the politics out of voting, and I’m in support of it,” Shelby Township Clerk Stanley Grot said. “While it will be more of a challenge for voters to study the candidates, I think it’s a good thing. It may take a little more time, but I think it’s a good thing because the voters will have to do their homework before they head to the polls.”

Michigan: Senate GOP faces pressure from Governor, SOS on no-reason absentee | MLive.com

The Michigan Senate in December broke a pair of bills apart to avoid passing no-reason absentee voting, but now they’re facing calls to pass that bill from Gov. Rick Snyder and Secretary of State Ruth Johnson. HB 4724 would allow voters to go to their local clerk’s office and either vote in person there or take an absentee ballot home without having a reason to vote absentee. Current Michigan law only allows absentee voting if a person falls into one of six categories, including being over age 60 or expecting to be out of town on election day. The bill was introduced in June, but gained traction when it was tie-barred to a bill that banned straight-ticket voting. That action would have meant that neither bill made it into law unless the other one did. However, the Senate broke that tie-bar in a late night session and the House agreed to it.

Michigan: Snyder signs bill eliminating straight-ticket voting | Detroit Free Press

Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill that will eliminate single-party, straight-ticket voting in Michigan, but urged the state Senate to also pass a bill that will allow voters to cast absentee ballots without having to provide a reason. “Michigan joins 40 other states that require voters to select an individual for each elective office, rather than simply selecting a political party,” Snyder wrote in a letter explaining why he signed the bill. “As governor, I have strived to put people before politics and strongly encourage voters to do the same.” Straight-ticket voting allows voters to fill in one box on the ballot to support all Democrats or all Republicans all the way down the ballot. Local clerks have said the option has helped speed voting lines, which tend to get quite long, especially in urban areas during presidential election years.

Michigan: Snyder is pressed to veto bill restricting ballot issue info | Associated Press

Lawmakers’ unexpected vote to block school districts and municipalities from informing the public about local ballot measures within two months of an election has left opponents pressuring Gov. Rick Snyder to veto the bill, which they say would keep voters in the dark about taxes and other issues. On Dec. 16, in the final hours of the Legislature’s last voting day of 2015, majority Republicans added the provision and others to campaign-finance legislation with no explanation and quickly passed the measure over objections from Democrats who said they were not told what was in it. Caught off guard, groups representing school officials, cities, libraries and other local entities are lobbying the Republican governor for a veto. He has until Jan. 11 to decide.

Michigan: Senate GOP plans to pass straight-ticket voting ban, ditch absentee voting bill | MLive.com

Michigan will ban straight-ticket voting without expanding absentee ballot options — if Senate Republicans have their way. Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, said the upper chamber will move Wednesday to separate elections bills linked and approved last week by the House. Senate Bill 13 would eliminate the option for voters to choose all candidates of a single political party by marking a check box on their ballot. The proposal, which could help Republicans win down-ticket education seats they’ve struggled to secure in recent years, has faced pushback from local clerks who believe that eliminating the faster voting option will lead to longer lines on Election Day.

Michigan: Detroit city clerk, voting rights advocates come out against “unnecessary” elections bills | Michigan Radio

Detroit city clerk Janice Winfrey and voting rights advocates are denouncing a pair of election bills in the Michigan Legislature right now. One is a state Senate bill that would restrict absentee voting hours, and ban absentee voting at satellite office locations. Winfrey says Detroit is one of just a few Michigan cities to use satellite voting, and it’s been “very successful” there. “So when you begin to impede that process, when you want to eliminate that process, now you’re affecting a particular group of people,” she said. Winfrey also criticized a bill to eliminate single-party, straight-ticket voting, saying that will make for longer lines and more confusion, disproportionately affecting urban voters.