A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Michigan can’t eliminate straight-party voting, saying that preventing voters from checking a single box to vote for all of a party’s candidates would lead to long lines at the polls and discriminate against blacks, who tend to use the straight-party option at a higher rate.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain in Detroit was a victory for the A. Philip Randolph Institute, which sued Michigan Secretary of State Ruth Johnson to overturn the ban that the Republican-led Legislature passed in late 2015.
Jerry King, who heads the Detroit-area chapter of the institute, a Washington-based organization that advocates on behalf of workers’ rights and civil rights, lauded the ruling. He told The Associated Press that the Republican push to get rid of straight-party voting was part of a “continuous step to undermine working-class people.”