Reuters: Federal judge blocks Michigan ban on ‘straight-ticket’ voting

(Reuters) – A federal judge on Wednesday ruled Michigan cannot ban “straight-ticket” voting, allowing voters to choose all a party’s candidates with just one bubble on a ballot, saying the law prohibiting the practice was racially discriminatory. …

Government watchdog group Common Cause called the ruling “a big win for Michigan voters.”

“Judge Drain’s decision makes clear that the Michigan legislature intentionally discriminated against African Americans for partisan political purposes,” the group’s president, Karen Hobert Flynn, said in a statement.