LANSING – A lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Detroit contends the law enacted late last year repealing the option for voters to choose a political party’s slate of candidates with a single vote on their ballot violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the U.S. Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act.
The long-anticipated lawsuit also emphasizes the revelation last week, reported Monday by Gongwer News Service, that the vignettes accompanying each political party will remain on the ballot. These vignettes historically appeared next to the spot to vote a straight party ticket.
But when the Legislature repealed straight ticket voting, it did not end the requirement for the vignettes. Clerks are concerned about voter confusion and disenfranchisement because some voters may try to circle or make a mark next to the vignette, an action that would not count.
The case was assigned to Judge Gershwin Drain, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama.
The lead attorney in the lawsuit is Mark Brewer, the former Michigan Democratic Party chair who specializes in election law.
The lawsuit claims that SB 13 (PA 268 of 2015) violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it unreasonably burdens the right to vote of all Michigan residents. It charges the lawsuit also violates the same clause by unreasonably and disproportionately burdening the right to vote of African-American residents. Similarly, it claims the law violates the Voting Rights act by denying African-Americans the right to vote because of their race and color.
About half of Michigan voters use the straight party option, the lawsuit says, including 75-80 percent of African-American voters.
The lawsuit says Michigan has some of the longer ballots and voter wait times in the country, claiming the state has the sixth-longest.
“The abolition of straight party voting serves no state interest: It will increase the cost of elections, not reduce it; it will increase voter confusion, not reduce it; it will increase congestion and long lines at the polling places, not reduce them; it will decrease voter participation, not increase it and will reduce voter confidence in elections, not increase it,” the lawsuit says.
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