Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh declined an emergency request to hear a case brought by a right wing group whose citizens-only voting petition to become a November ballot proposal was denied by a Michigan State Board of Canvassers.
Americans for Citizen Voting-Michigan brought a petition to the State Board of Canvassers that would propose to voters a Constitutional amendment requiring photo ID to vote and eliminating an option for a voter to attest to their identity by affidavit in place of a photo ID.
The board determined the proposal would be left off the November ballot due to a lack of valid petition signatures.
The group needed 446,198 signatures to advance the measure and claimed it had collected more than 700,000. But a review of a random 1,000-signature sample by state election officials found that of that 1,000-signature sample, only 612 were valid. The Bureau of Elections advises against certifying a petition if a sample review contains 628 or fewer valid signatures.
Further deliberations of signatures and affidavits whittled the difference down to the petitioners’ sample being only three votes short. But close only counts in hand grenades or horseshoes, etc.
Americans for Citizens Voting-Michigan was bigly mad they were so close but denied, so sponsors filed an emergency injunction to SCOTUS on Monday, as Michigan ballots were to be finalized on Friday. The appeal landed in the lap of Brett Kavanaugh who denied to hear the appeal on Thursday.
Later on the same day, the Michigan Supreme Court also denied to take up the case on an expedited basis, ruling that ACVM were not entitled to mandamus relief — or rather, a ruling that would have compelled the Board of State Canvassers to approve the petition. ACVM had petitioned the Michigan high court four days before filing to SCOTUS, but had not been addressed.
State and federal law already requires that all voters must be US citizens. Stricter voting ID laws would disenfranchise many legal voters.
Detroit News, Michigan Advance