Michigan Legislature OKs End Of Straight-Party Voting Option

LANSING (AP) - A sharply divided Legislature late Wednesday voted to eliminate the straight-party voting option from ballots, a step majority Republicans said would bring Michigan in line with 40 other states and Democrats denounced as a partisan maneuver to help the GOP win elections.

Republicans uncoupled the legislation from a House-passed bill favored by clerks that would have let voters cast an absentee ballot without having to meet specific criteria. After the Senate approved the legislation 24-13, the House barely passed it 54-52, and lawmakers adjourned until January.

If Republican Gov. Rick Snyder signs the bill, Michigan would become the 41st state to not let people vote for an entire ticket of one party's candidates with a single mark.

Republicans said the straight-party voting option encourages ill-prepared voters to pick officeholders solely on party affiliation, not their qualifications.

Democrats — furious that Republicans in the Senate locked the doors and restricted their ability to debate amendments and slow down the process — accused Republicans of seeking partisan gain, particularly in down-ballot races. They said straight-party voting is a convenient, popular option whose removal would lengthen lines that are the country's sixth-longest and suppress turnout, especially without the no-reason absentee legislation.

The straight-ticket bill includes $5 million for additional voting booths and tabulators after clerks raised concerns that removing the option would lead to longer waits. The allocation makes the bill immune from a voter referendum. Voters twice before have preserved the straight-ticket option in referendums.

Sen. Steve Bieda, D-Warren, told Republicans that the legislation should be called the "Donald Trump-is-going-to-be-your-nominee-and-you're-terrified bill," alluding to the belief that candidates at the top of a ballot influences lower-level elections.

"Straight-ticket voting has its place in our state," he said. "We have a long ballot. People have the convenience of voting the way they'd like to vote. You shouldn't be going in there micromanaging how they're going to vote."

But Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof, R-West Olive, told reporters that the abolition of the straight-party option is "a very progressive idea like (in) 40 other states," where he said there has been minimal to no effect on voting lines.

"More and more people don't identify by party, so not having a party label on it was probably a good idea," he said.

Snyder was noncommittal about the straight-ticket legislation during an interview earlier Wednesday. He told The Associated Press that Michigan is among a minority of states with the option, but he understood election officials' fears about "the speed of people voting."

"Personally I don't think I've ever voted straight ticket because one of the things I try to do is I try to go down and look at every person in all the races," Snyder said. "If it arrives to my desk, which is likely to happen, I'll look at it."

Snyder said while the issue was not on his to-do list, lawmakers have their own priorities. He said he would analyze the bill "from a policy perspective, not a political perspective."

Michigan AFL-CIO President Ron Bieber called the "anti-democratic" bill an "absolute disgrace" and said Snyder "should do the right thing" and veto it.

House Elections Committee Chairwoman Lisa Posthumus Lyons of Alto was among six Republicans to join every Democrat in opposing the legislation in the House. She had been in support until the Senate removed a provision that said the bill could not become law unless her no-excuse absentee measure also was enacted.

"I do not believe this policy alone is in the best interest of Michigan's voters, and it is unfortunate that the Legislature squandered the opportunity to enact good election reform that is not pro-Republican or pro-Democrat, but pro-voter," she said in a statement.

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