Voting at Polls

Voters cast ballots at a Michigan polling location.

(File photo | MLive.com)

The U.S. Supreme Court today denied Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette's application to stay an injunction on Michigan's law banning straight-ticket voting, meaning the voting practice will remain an option for Michigan's November election.

The ruling was issued on the morning of Friday, Sept. 9, and states "Justice Thomas and Justice Alito would grant the application."

In May, the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a black labor organization labor, filed a lawsuit, arguing the law banning the straight-ticket voting disproportionately impacts African-Americans, who are more likely to vote a straight-party ticket.

A federal court issued a preliminary injunction on the law, meaning straight-ticket voting would be permitted in Michigan, at least for this year.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette on behalf of the Michigan Secretary of State appealed the ruling in the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the court denied efforts to stay the preliminary injunction.

Schuette filed an appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court Friday, Sept. 2, asking for an answer by Thursday, Sept. 8, in order to make a deadline the following day on changing general election ballots.

Schuette did not immediately respond to a request for comment following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

He posted on his Facebook page before the ruling was issued, "Elections matter, because they determine who will write the laws for our state. As attorney general, it is my sworn duty to uphold and defend these laws -- not to substitute my personal judgment and decide which laws I like, and which I don't.

A survey of Michigan counties showed that 50 pecent of voters cast a straight-ticket ballot in the 2012 election.

"Michigan's voting laws have been challenged in court. And, as is always the case when Michigan laws are challenged, I have gone to court to defend state law," the post reads.

An MLive survey of Michigan county clerks found that 50 percent of voters used the straight-ticket ballot option in the 2012 presidential election, about 30 percent supporting the Democratic ticket; 19 percent, the Republican ticket and 1 percent voted straight ticket for a third party.

Responses to the MLive survey show straight-ticket voting is popular beyond urban minority communities.

Justin Roebuck is clerk of Ottawa County, where less than 2 percent of residents are African-American. In 2012, 57 percent of Ottawa County voters opted for the straight-ticket option.

The arguments in the legal case "made it sound like the big impact was in places like Detroit and Flint, but it impacts all of us," Roebuck said.