Judge: Michigan's Dem Primary Unconstitutional

Detroit News:

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled Michigan's presidential primary law unconstitutional and blocked the state from giving voter lists from the Jan. 15 election to the state's major political parties.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds in Detroit ruled that the law's provision giving the list of voters' partisan preference only to the Democratic and Republican parties violated the rights of several small parties, who argued that the information should be distributed to all who wanted it or to no one.

Read the whole story: Detroit News

Comments

[PrdAmerican]

Talk about having someone not only kick down your portable goal-post, but toss it out of the state as well.

[ICUP]

Did most of you even read this post? It's about the giving of voter lists to two parties instead of all parties. Go have your primary re-do discussions somewhere else.

Hopefully this ruling will be the first step toward a fairier partisan system in the US. I'd like to see the Greens or Libertarians challenge the constitutionality of Federal matching funds and local election boards controlled by D and R functionaries. Maybe one day we'll see a true multi-party system here.

[AnninCA]

Is that what this is about? I'm unfamiliar with this one.

[jaywh1]

The ruling does not effect the January 15, 2008 results as they stand, but it does impact the proposed legislation for a revote. The reason is that the proposed revote would exclude voters that participated in the January 15, 2008 Republican primary. The "lists" at issue in this case would be the record of who could or could not participate in a Democratic primary revote. The Court, in its decision, ordered that the lists not be provided to any party. Therefore there is no way to determine who would be eligible to participate in the revote under the currently proposed legislation. Michigan would now have to craft legislation for an essentially open primary revote, and basically no candidate, particularly Hillary, will agree to that. The Michigan revote is dead.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

Well duh!!!!

[livesimply]

Illegal? Well, no s##t.

[rojo7449]

Why can't any of the headlines on this site be accurate? The primary wasn't unconstitutional, the request for sharing the list of people who voted in the Republican primary with the democrats has been denied because they won't share the list with the other political parties. Talk about stirring up controversies.

[SCG]

Clearly U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds is a sexist, Hillary basher, who is an undercover Obama supporter! She must be a closet democrat.

P.S. there aren't many left.

[AZDemocrat500]

Why not have a process where allof the votes are counted. It looks as if the the so-called messiah is just another politican trying to get any advantage.

[SCG]

Yes, it was a master plot, dreamed up many many years ago in the dark corners of the Wilson administration. How Obama convince both Mich & Fla to move their primary dates up was nothing short of shear genius.....hee hee hee (evil laugh)

[angelbravo]

give it up

[SLone08]

Florida and Michigan knew the rules and ignored them. We're not going to let them be kingmakers in this election after 48 other states complied with DNC wishes.

[hank48188]

When the DNC starts paying for their own primaries they can start setting the rules, when they are paid for by the TAXPAYERS the DNC or RNC should have NO VOICE in stting any rules.

[Opus007]

Exactly right SLone08.
It's a faux controversy driven by the desparate Clinton campaign!

[nomobull]

and where does it say anywhere he had a ri.le her decision

[thegreatgiginthesky]

So it is Obama's fault for complying with the DNC's rules by not running in states that were not going to be counted. How exactly is he taking advantage by simply following the rules? He didn't make them. If you want to blame anyone blame the idiot dems in Michigan and Florida.

[KPKING]

It actually means nothing to her chances and her rethoric concerning michigan
Quote: Edmunds, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyers who won the case and the state's top election manager all agreed that the ruling had no practical impact on the 2008 presidential campaign. "Nothing I'm going to say or do" affects the results of the Jan. 15 vote, Edmunds said. "That's the political reality."

[jsinclair]

Well, this should make it a lot more difficult for Hillary to claim its disenfranchising voters to not count the votes in Michigan. (I always laugh when she says this shows she's fighting for democracy. ROFL. Does anyone, even a Clinton supporter, think she'd want the voters seated if OBAMA'S name was the only one on the ballot? Instead, she'd be talking about how he was trying to steal the election. Oh, Clintons. So predictable)

[hank48188]

Obama REMOVED his name from the Michigan ballot to curry votes in Iowa and N.H., the Democratic Party, the DNC and Howard Dean should have no voice in deciding when any State has their Primary. These are paid for by the taxpayers of the States, when the DNC starts paying they can decide. Obama doesn't want any re-votes in florida or michigan and doesn't want to count the 2,500,000 DEMS that voted in those States. If Obama is the DEM running in November he will lose both States to McCain.

[kae]

How many more headlines like this do we need to see before we admit 2008 will be just like 2000 & 2004. Just because they "change it up a little" does not mean this election's corruption is any different.

[kevenseven]

You go ahead and be confused. This is a sea change.

[angelbravo]

Blame the states its was their decisions

[SCG]

That's logical, and not in service of the Clinton agenda.

[hank48188]

They PAID for the Primary and they should decide when to have it, when the DNC starts paying they can call the shots. Both Political parties should be thankful to the taxpayers of the States that do pay the millions to run a real election for their benefit, or would you prefer something like Wyoming has? Wyoming has 60,000 registered DEMS but only 8,900 went to the caucus, very un-democratic

[iPolitics]

Congressman Dan Lipinski " one of the two remaining holdouts among supers in Illinois" congressional delegation " gets behind Obama

[Wildcatdiva]

The primary didn't count. The DNC said the votes wouldn't count. Michigan voters that understood (those that weren’t on dog food ) voted uncommitted in that slot. As usual, rebel rousers hit the state and stirred up BS. Sheeple who don't have a clue, jump and down yelling, "We've been robbed". However, the people who robbed them were their representatives by going against their party's rules. These are the people whom MI democrats voted for.

[trevor01]

That weren't on dog food? I imagine Obama's supporters enjoy chilled white whine and french cheese.

[drkazmd65]

Most French cheese goes better with a good red wine to my mind. Although what do I know. I was a Kucinich supporter.

[nomobull]

stop trying to blame him for the decision michigan and florida made

[livesimply]

Don't you get it??? The decision was made before the primary that it WOULD NOT COUNT because it was against the rules and all candidates signed on to this decision (including Hillary.) What about that don't you understand?

[ApolloniaCreed]

Oooo, sounds yum!

[LAJonathan]

Exactly, this is what Obama has been saying all along. Hillary and Bill blame him though, either way and try to position him as someone who hates the voters of MI and FL. Not true. This was always between the DNC and the court.

[suekzoo]

Michigan Democrat here. One of the implications that I can think of is that it complicates the Clinton's demand that people who voted in the Jan 15th Republican primary be barred from a do-over primary. (Which, btw, is one of the reasons the do-over legislation failed here. The Clinton's don't tell you that part of it.....)If the list can't be shared, there is no way to bar people. There is no way the State is going to share that list with anyone who wants it.

[JimSAC]

Yes. This is the other important part of the ruling. 1. The 1/15 primary does not count. 2. If there is a redo they cannot bar people who voted in the Rep primary. This should be considered a victory for Obama. He can now support a redo under his conditions and given that he is pretty much even in the polls in MI from what I last saw, if could ultimately have no substantive impact on the overall results. As such, since Obama is the leader in the race, it is a good decision for Obama.

[rojo7449]

Interesting. Every state has its own laws. Texas is under a cloud because people voted in the democratic primary, then voted again in the republican. The news clip I saw said that it is criminal there and they may pursue the dual voters despite the huge number of them they would have to run through the jail system. Although people are thinking it is a gold star to have the republican "cross over" votes, it's difficult to know how many of those are legitimate and how many are part of the intent to cause chaos.

[AnninCA]

I dont really fully understand this ruling.

Or its implications.

[outnow]

Since Hillary "won" it would negate her argument that she won a void primary. That's the logical conclusion. Whether a redo would be in order, I couldn't say.

[Lyria]

This is why bad headlines drive me crazy. The judge did *not* rule the primary unconstitutional, as stated in the headline; rather he ruled the primary *law* unconstiitutional So the part of the law which releases lists of the party preferences of the primary voters to only the Democratic and Republican parties and not to smaller parties - like the Greens, Libertarians, etc. -- is overturned The primary itself is not overturned.

[BigJake]

I am a Michigan Democrat and I didn't vote for Hillary in the 1st primary and given another chance, I certainly wouldn't vote for her. To be honest, I would've voted for Edwards the first time around had his name been on the ballot. I have seen the light since then and Obama gets my support from here on out!

[LAJonathan]

The judge ruled that the primary that took place in Michigan is unconstitutional because of what happened. Only HRC on the ballot etc. HRC's people have been pushing to get those votes anyway and this ruling is stating that it is not going to happen. Now, since they decided not to have a revote, the case of counting votes in MI anyway is now over.

[jrterrier]

No that is not what the judge ruled. The full story makes clear what the judge did.

"Judge Edmunds, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyers who won the case and the state's top election manager all agreed that the ruling had no practical impact on the 2008 presidential campaign. "Nothing I'm going to say or do" affects the results of the Jan. 15 vote, Edmunds said. "That's the political reality."

The ruling only dealt with whether the state could turn over the list of registered voters to the Dem party while withholding it from other parties.

[neocon43]

Not over by a long shot.Could lead to a court ordering a revote.Bad for Obama!