Straight-ticket voting will be allowed in Michigan after SCOTUS denies stay
Straight-ticket voting in Michigan will be allowed in the upcoming election after the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday refused to issue a stay requested by the state.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s stay refusal (PDF) leaves intact a federal judge’s decision temporarily blocking a law that banned straight-ticket voting in the state, report the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, SCOTUSblog and Lyle Denniston Law News. Straight-ticket voting allows voters to choose all the candidates from a political party with a single action.
U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain had found the law had a disproportionate burden on black voters. The Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to disturb the decision, noting that black-majority districts in Michigan historically had the longest wait times for voting, and banning straight-ticket voting would make the wait even longer.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. would have granted the stay.
