MICHIGAN: THE COURTS OF ELECTIONS [Henry Payne 10/26 10:22 PM]
Moving quickly to defuse the Democratic Party’s attempt to throw Michigan’s election into chaos, a federal appeals court in Lansing late Tuesday overturned a rogue Sixth Circuit judge’s ruling that so-called provisional ballots could be counted even if they were filed outside a voter’s designated precinct.
Just last week, the Sixth Circuit judge – a Clinton appointee – had overturned longstanding Michigan law requiring ballots to be filed in voters’ precincts. Michigan Democrats had “judge-shopped” the case in a last minute attempt to maximize the number of votes for John Kerry as well as pre-emptively set the
groundwork for post-election challenges claiming voting disenfranchisement.
Michigan Secretary of State Terry Lynn Land’s office (which overseas election returns) had warned that the judge’s decision would have thrown a monkey wrench into state election machinery ill-equipped to deal with such a last-minute change in voting rules. With Republican charges that “the hanging chad crowd” was coming to Michigan, the case brought echoes of Democratic attempts to change Florida’s election laws in order to overturn the 2000 presidential outcome. Election experts had warned that the Democratic judge’s decision was a recipe for fraud. State Democratic Party chair Mark Brewer lamented the decision, but will not appeal the result.
