The ACLU and several other organizations that support voting rights filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Ruth Johnson’s citizen “checkboxes” printed on ballot application forms.
The forms, which were used in February’s presidential primary and August state primary elections, ask the prospective voter to check a box declaring that they are a U.S. citizen. In July, Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed a bill that would have required the declaration, but Johnson pushed ahead with the forms in the August primaries anyway.
According to an ACLU statement, the forms created confusion at polling centers, forcing Johnson to issue a directive to poll workers that the checkboxes were unenforceable. The Michigan Election Coalition asked Johnson to remove the box from the November forms but she refused, prompting the lawsuit.
“The Secretary of State may be the chief election officer in the state, but she is not above the law,” ACLU of Michigan executive director Kary Moss said in the statement. “By ignoring the administrative rule-making and legislative processes, she has thumbed her nose at the electorate and flouted the very laws she was elected to uphold. We can all agree that it should be easier to vote and harder to cheat, but cynical voter suppression tactics should not be tolerated.”
The Michigan Lawyer 