[EL] The Strange MI Voting Case

[Gabriel Gopen]

> - rather than providing more voting booths (duh!!)

More voting "booths" is really more voting machines which would costs money.  As a reader of this list you should be familiar with the issue of voting machine obsolescence and integrity.  Here is a recent article which cites the Brennan Center's work on the subject www.politico.com/story/2015/09/study-electronic-voting-machines-out-of-date-43-states-213632.  There has been literal or  no federal money, I believe, since HAVA.  So this is not a simple matter of more polling booths but a $1 billion + issue.



> On Sep 9, 2016, at 1:58 PM, David A. Holtzman <David at HoltzmanLaw.com> wrote:
> 
> What of the obvious offensive implication here, that “black people can’t vote” (so they need a crutch to keep the line moving)?
> 
> Isn’t a more important “real concern on election day” that if the straight ticket crutch is available, people will be expected to use it?  And that those who don’t will risk being labeled “uppity?”  
> 
> If, in another state, a straight ticket device is *instituted* to *shorten* wait times at polling places, particularly those where a lot of African-Americans vote -- rather than providing more voting booths (duh!!) -- wouldn’t that be obscenely outrageous?
> 
> Hell, if black people are expected to vote straight-ticket Democratic, why not just enter those votes for them in advance, and make them come to the polls if they want to vote differently?  Seriously, you could do that for anybody who registers as a member of a party.  (Why waste money on giving those people ballots?)  Or, in states where you have race data in the rolls, you could do it just for poorly-represented racial groups!
> 
> When I read this morning that Justice Thomas indicated he would have let Michigan eliminate the crutch, at least for this election, I wondered if he wasn’t somehow channeling Ward Connerly.  (Do not suggest that black people can’t think for themselves as well as others....)
> 
> Finally, isn’t it a bit weird to think that for members of a group that had to fight -- seriously fight -- to get to the polls, waiting two minutes more on line could somehow make voting not worth it?
> 
>   - David Holtzman
> 
> 
> 
>> On 9/8/2016 8:56 PM, Rick Hasen wrote:
>>   #SCOTUS Sometimes Decides Even When It Doesn’t Decide: The Strange MI Voting Case
>> Posted on September 8, 2016 8:37 pm by Rick Hasen
>> It is almost midnight on the East Coast, and we still have no ruling from the Supreme Court on Michigan’s application to allow it to eliminate straight ticket voting (a mechanism which allows a person to vote for all party offices with a single vote). A federal court had ruled preliminarily that Michigan’s abandonment of this device (which many states have eliminated) would adversely harm African-American voters, in part by increasing the lines in polling places (maybe by 2 minutes or more per person, a real concern on election day). This looks like a Voting Rights Act violation.
>> A panel of the Sixth Circuit refused to stay that order (meaning straight ticket voting would remain for November), and the entire Sixth Circuit, sitting en banc refused (on a split vote to get involved).
>> 
>> Michigan rushed to the Supreme Court for relief, and told the Court it needed an answer by today, September 8, in order to know how to print ballot materials. So I, as well as many others, expected the Court would rule today. They usually rule before deadlines like this. I also thought for various reasons Michigan had a very low chance of getting relief on this motion.
>> So here we are with almost the day over and nothing.
>> 
>> Michigan might be able to stall tomorrow for a few hours if the order does not come by morning (in 2014, we had a Texas voter id ruling and Justice Ginsburg dissent issued at 5 am on the Saturday before early voting was starting in Texas). But it has to treat this as equivalent to the denial of relief from the Supreme Court.
>> 
>> I strongly suspect that the reason for the delay is a dissent from one or more Justices (the likely suspects are Justices Alito and Thomas). After all, if the Court was going to grant relief, it knew it had to do so by the end of September 8.
>> 
>> We will probably know soon enough, but here, deciding not to decide is also deciding.
>> 
>> <mime-attachment.png>
>> Posted in election administration, Supreme Court, The Voting Wars
> []
> -- 
> David A. Holtzman, M.P.H., J.D.
> david at holtzmanlaw.com
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