LANSING, MI (WHTC-AM/FM, July 4, 2024) – Who has the last word on how elections are operated in Michigan?
That question has come up stemming from the ramifications of the passage of Proposal 3 by voters six years ago that expanded voting rights into the state constitution. This included allowing straight-ticket voting, no-reason absentee voting, and same day voter registration.
The group Michigan Fair Elections filed a federal lawsuit late last year, challenging the passage on US constitutional grounds, according to one of the plaintiffs, Republican State Senator Jonathan Lindsey of Brooklyn.
US District Court Judge Jane Beckering dismissed the lawsuit in April, saying that Lindsey and 10 other state lawmakers, including first-term House Representative Rachelle Smit of Shelbyville, lacked the standing to sue. The group this week announced an appeal of the dismissal.
Governor Whitmer, Secretary of State Benson and state Elections Director Jonathan Brater are listed as defendants, and state Attorney General Dana Nessel has called the lawsuit absurd and baseless, based on an independent state legislature theory she said was from a right-wing fringe interpretation often espoused in support of former President Donald Trump’s undemocratic efforts to steal the 2020 presidential election. The US Supreme Court also rejected that theory in a 2023 decision that held individual members lacked the standing to assert the interests of an entire legislature.
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