Court ruling means more trouble for state’s presidential primary

MASON — Plans for the already controversial Jan. 15 Michigan presidential primary election were thrown into further confusion Wednesday by an Ingham County judge. 

Acting in a lawsuit brought by two journalists, a political consultant and several mid-Michigan residents, Circuit Court Judge William Collette tossed out the entire Jan. 15 primary law as unconstitutional.

The law, signed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm on Sept. 5, creates a presidential primary date of Jan. 15, but it also restricts public access to the names of those who vote. Only the chairs of the Republican and Democratic parties would have access to the voter list; it would be a crime for anyone else, including journalists, to access and use the list.

Continued -“I think anything the state spends money on, in general, should yield information that is equally available to everyone,” said Berl Schwartz, publisher of the Lansing weekly newspaper City Pulse and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “It is our fundamental right to have access to information.”

The primary was already a hot political issue because most of the Democratic presidential hopefuls pulled out and said they would not campaign in the state after the primary date was moved up from February in an effort to get  Michigan more political  attention. 

At issue in the lawsuit, said Schwartz and attorney Randy Bodwin, was the right of individuals to access publicly funded and created databases.

“I think this is really important,” said Bodwin, who represented the plaintiffs, “because this information is being paid for out of your pockets. That information is public and to give it to a private party erodes the purity of the elections process.”

While the lawsuit sought to eliminate only the limitations on who has access to the qualified-voter list the primary would have created, the entire law had to be thrown out, Bodwin said, because lawmakers forgot to put a clause in the law saying that if one part were found unconstitutional, the rest of the law would still stand. As a result, the entire act had to be ruled unconstitutional. 

Both Schwartz and Bodwin believe the state will appeal the decision. However, to remedy the problems, the legislature could go back and create a new law, avoiding the parts Collette found unconstitutional.

It costs the state an estimated $10 million to run a presidential primary. By limiting access to the voter information, the state was also limiting a potential income source. Anyone can access public records in Michigan, simply by requesting the records and paying a small fee. Under the law that was struck down, the Freedom of Information Act did not apply to the list of voters and it would have been a misdemeanor to use the records. Anyone found guilty would have faced up to 93 days in jail, and/or $1,000 fine.