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October 5, 2012 at 6:27 pm
Judge orders citizenship question removed from ballot applications
By Chad Livengood
Detroit News Lansing Bureau
Secretary of State Ruth Johnson appeared in U.S. District Court in Detroit on Friday in a hearing over whether check-off boxes that ask state voters to confirm their U.S. citizenship status on ballot applications should be allowed in November. (David Guralnick/ The Detroit News)
Detroit — A federal judge late Friday ordered Secretary of State Ruth Johnson to remove a U.S. citizenship question from ballot applications for the Nov. 6 election, citing potential confusion and inconsistent use of the inquiry.
"It really is a burden on the right to vote in terms of slowing things down, in terms of confusion," U.S. District Court Paul Borman said in ruling from the bench after a six-hour hearing.
Johnson, a Republican, said she was disappointed by the judge's ruling, questioned why she was hauled into court Friday and said the citizenship question roots out an unknown number of non-citizens who have been inadvertently registered to vote while legally obtaining driver's licenses.
"This is an education tool that we found that works," Johnson told reporters after the hearing.
Johnson said the ruling could increase election costs for municipalities that have to reprint voter application forms. They also may be able to black out the question, Johnson said.
During the hearing, testimony revealed Johnson ordered the removal of the citizenship question from absentee voter applications for the Nov. 6 election one week after being sued over the issue.
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If it's so important, then why isn't it on the absentee ballots?" Borman asked.
Borman suggested election officials post signs in voting precincts indicating that it's illegal for non-citizens to vote instead of burdening millions of legitimate voters with the question
.
The ACLU of Michigan, SEIU, the Ingham County clerk and others claim Johnson's citizenship question caused widespread voter confusion in the August primary after Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed legislation in July that would have made inclusion of the question state law.
After the voting rights coalition sued Johnson on Sept. 17 over unequal enforcement of the citizenship question in the August primary, Johnson's office issued a "News You Can Use" memo to election clerks across the state on Sept. 25 ordering the removal of the question from forms for the presidential contest.
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Use of the citizenship question on Absentee Voter Ballot applications has been discontinued," the memo reads.
Insistent that voters affirm their citizenship to root out non-citizens on voter rolls, Johnson's office did not publicize its discontinuation of the citizenship question for absentee voters only.
"This was the first news that anyone could use that the question had been discontinued," plaintiffs' attorney Mary Ellen Gurewitz said in court.
The uneven enforcement of the citizenship question violates voters' equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution, Gurewitz said.
"There was inconsistent, to put it mildly, application of the (absentee voter) form," Gurewitz said.
On Thursday, Borman denied Johnson's request to skip the court hearing.
Johnson had asked Borman to let her send state elections director Chris Thomas in her absence.
Thomas has previously told The Detroit News that Johnson has the authority to require voters at the polls to answer the citizenship question but acknowledged state law spells out what can be asked of absentee voters.
During the morning hearing, Thomas testified briefly before Gurewitz introduced numerous exhibits and written testimony from election clerks in Detroit, Dearborn, Lansing and Ingham, Macomb and Washtenaw counties, which have ordered ballot applications for the November election without the citizenship question — in defiance of Johnson's orders.
Johnson put the policy in place for the February presidential primary. She continued to require local clerks to include the question on ballot applications in the August primary, even after Snyder vetoed legislation that Johnson sought to make her question permanent.
In court, Gurewitz said the controversy surrounding the citizenship question and voters' knowledge of the governor's veto could lead to disputes between voters, election workers and political party challengers who police the polls for voting irregularities.
"It's going to slow things down and that's the worst thing that can happen in a presidential election," said Gurewitz, who added, "Delay is deadly."
In a ruling Thursday, Borman also denied Johnson's motion seeking to stop local clerks from testifying at the hearing and explaining why they are disregarding Johnson's ballot application question.
Johnson also sought to exclude testimony about her legal authority to place the citizenship question on absentee and in-person voting applications.
Borman also denied Johnson's motion to prevent testimony related to her use of the citizenship question in Saginaw County's Buena Vista Township and Allegan County's Clyde Township — jurisdictions where election procedures are strictly supervised by the U.S. Department of Justice because of past election law violations
.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit included Ingham County Clerk Michael Bryanton, the ACLU of Michigan, Service Employees International Union Michigan State Council, Detroit-based Latin Americans for Social and Economic Justice (LA SED) and SEIU Local 517M, which has union members in Buena Vista and Clyde townships, and voters from East Lansing, Shelby Township and Buena Vista Township.
To justify the citizenship question, Johnson's office said last month it has found 963 noncitizens on the voter rolls from a sample of 56,000 driver's licenses and state-issued identification cards for noncitizens.
The Secretary of State could only obtain access to a federal database of 56,000 of the estimated 305,000 noncitizens in Michigan, so elections officials estimated the number of noncitizens on voter rolls could be as high as 4,000.
Detroit News Staff Writer Mark Hicks contributed.
clivengood@detroitnews.com
From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121005/POLITICS02/210050388#ixzz28TahWEQW |
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