Supreme Court upholds straight-ticket voting in Michigan, rejecting attempt by Republicans who fear Trump effect

The Supreme Court, acting in a partisan election dispute triggered by the rise of Donald Trump, has turned down an appeal from Michigan Republicans who sought to eliminate straight-ticket voting for the first time in 125 years.

The justices by a 6-2 vote refused to allow the state to enforce a change in the voting rules adopted on a party-line vote. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. said they would have restored the new law.

Until this year, Michigan was one of 10 states that allowed its voters to check one box on the ballot and thereby cast votes for all the Democrats or all the Republicans who were running for office.

About half of Michigan’s voters cast a straight-ticket vote in recent elections, as did as many as three-fourths of its African American voters.

But in January, when Trump rose to the top of the polls, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed a measure passed hurriedly through the Republican-controlled Legislature to forbid straight-ticket voting. Democrats objected and said the Republicans feared that having Trump at the top of ticket could cost them support for their other candidates for state and local races.

State Sen. Steven Bieda, a Democrat, called the bill “one of the ugliest episodes of the legislature trampling on the rights of the people. … This should be otherwise known as the ‘Donald Trump is your nominee and you’re terrified of that’ bill.”

Civil rights lawyers went to federal court this spring seeking to block the change. They argued the switch would confuse some voters and lead to much longer lines at the polls, particularly in the Detroit area. Michigan, unlike its neighboring states, does not permit early voting, and they argued that long lines on election day could deter thousands of people from casting a ballot.

A federal judge in July blocked the new law from going into effect this year, saying it would have a discriminatory effect on black voters. And the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, by a 3-0 vote, upheld this decision on Aug. 17.

Michigan Atty. Gen. Bill Schuette appealed to the Supreme Court last week and urged the justices to revive the new law.

He noted that 40 states, including California, New York, Illinois and Florida, do not give this option to their voters. “This change is not a burden on voting. It is the very act of voting,” Schuette said.

But the court turned down the appeal Friday.

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