Skip to content
Project 2025
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories
Gynecologist doing ultrasound of pregnant woman in hospital.

No Doctor, No Delivery, No Future

What Will It Take to Rebuild American Democracy?

What Will It Take to Rebuild American Democracy?

A military ship out in the sea.

Reasons to Care about the Sailors Aboard the USS Lincoln

Person holding gavel and reading from a book.

Retired Chief Justices Warn of Growing Threats to the Rule of Law

State Gerrymandering Surge Ends Path to Proportional Representation

State Gerrymandering Surge Ends Path to Proportional Representation

Another day, another lawsuit challenging Michigan voting laws

Voting in Michigan

A third lawsuit has been filed in less than a month by the liberal group Priorities USA challenging voting laws and regulations in Michigan. Above, a voter heads to a polling place in Grosse Pointe Park.

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
Bill Theobald
By Bill TheobaldNov 18, 2019
Bill Theobald

Bill Theobald is senior writer at The Fulcrum, where he focuses on everything to do with voting. This December marks his 40th anniversary in the business, and he still believes -- now more than ever -- that the glow from great journalism can truly light the world.

See More Writings by author

A Democratic advocacy group has filed a third lawsuit in less than a month challenging Michigan laws and policies it says restrict voting rights.

The focus on Michigan voting laws by the super PAC Priorities USA reflects the importance of the state's 16 electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election. President Trump won Michigan, a swing state, by less than half a percentage point in 2016.

The latest lawsuit, filed Friday in state court, challenges actions taken after a successful 2018 ballot initiative expanded voting options, such as allowing people to register to vote at any time (including on Election Day). It also automatically registered people to vote when they obtained or renewed their driver's licenses.

The Republican-controlled Legislature has since passed a law limiting in-person registration to the local clerk's office. Democrats complained citizens should be able to register to vote at polling places, but GOP lawmakers said that would make waiting lines longer on Election Day.

The lawsuit also challenges a policy instituted by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, that excludes teens from being automatically registered to vote when they turn 17 and a half years old.

Benson is the defendant in the case.

The latest lawsuit claims the documentation requirement and the ban on same-day registration at polling places hurts young voters more than others.

Priorities USA also filed a lawsuit last week challenging Michigan laws that ban rides to the polls for most people and organized absentee ballot application drives.

That lawsuit was filed in federal court against Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, also a Democrat.

The two laws contradict federal law and regulations, and are unconstitutional, the suit argues.

Last month, Priorities USA filed a separate lawsuit challenging a Michigan law allowing local election officials to discard mail-in ballots when signatures aren't similar enough to the handwriting on file. Michigan is one of several states where signature match laws are being challenged in court.


Latest news

David Becker on Defending U.S. Elections from New Threats
Elections

David Becker on Defending U.S. Elections from New Threats

A Democracy Cannot Run on an AI Model
Elections

A Democracy Cannot Run on an AI Model

(Don't Fear) Money in Politics
Money & Politics

(Don't Fear) Money in Politics

Protecting Immigrant Families from Over-Surveillance

Protecting Immigrant Families from Over-Surveillance

Read More

Person voting in a voting booth.

Why are so many American elections uncontested? Richard Neal’s long tenure in Congress highlights a broader problem involving money, ballot access, parties and candidate recruitment.

Hill Street Studios/Getty Images

America Has an Uncontested Elections Problem

Richard Neal, the congressman representing Massachusetts’ 1st district, is concluding his 19th congressional term this year. In many ways, Neal is a typical long-tenured congressperson. However, Congressman Neal is distinguished by having been elected to Congress uncontested more times than anyone in post-civil rights American history.

Neal owes his long tenure in part to the uncompetitive elections in western Massachusetts where so-called “silent elections” are common. Some would be challengers may be put off by the fact that he has won seven of his eight contested congressional races by more than 20 points. More often than not, Neal has been uncontested in the Democratic primary as well, however, this year he has competition in both the primary and general election.

Keep ReadingShow less
A Democracy Cannot Run on an AI Model

Clerk Matthew Sandbar, 34, demonstrates part of the ballot-sorting process to members of the media attending a walkthrough of the Philadelphia Ballot Processing Center used to process the ballots of the 2022 US midterm elections, in Philadelphia on October 27, 2022.

Photo by Ryan Collerd / AFP via Getty Images

A Democracy Cannot Run on an AI Model

Tallying the results of Washington, DC’s first ranked-choice election in June took about 10 days—longer than many voters are used to. In an age when artificial intelligence can generate an answer in seconds, waiting days for election results can feel old-fashioned, inefficient, even suspicious. And it is about to matter far more widely. This November, 17 states, cities, and counties will use ranked-choice voting, including Maine and Alaska statewide, in races that could help decide control of Congress. More voters than ever will watch results take days to resolve, and more will be asked to trust a count they cannot see.

But that slowness may be one of its most democratic features.

Keep ReadingShow less
People waiting in a line outside as the sun sets.

Voters wait in line outside the Metropolitan Multi-Service Center to cast their ballots in Houston, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. A recent state investigation confirmed that some registered voters flagged as potential noncitizens by a federal system had already provided proof of citizenship.

Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images

Texas Confirms Some Flagged As Potential Noncitizens on Voter Rolls Had Provided DPS Proof of Citizenship

Election officials across the state should immediately reinstate some voters who were incorrectly flagged as potential noncitizens through a federal program, the Texas Secretary of State’s Office told county officials Wednesday.

Christina Adkins, the state elections director, told county officials the state had reviewed Texas Department of Public Safety records confirming the citizenship of some of the 2,724 registered voters who were flagged as potential noncitizens, according to an audio recording of her comments obtained by Votebeat and The Texas Tribune, as well as election officials who heard them. The voters were flagged after the state checked its voter roll through a federal program called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, used to verify the citizenship of people registered to vote.

Keep ReadingShow less
People walking down the steps of the U.S. capitol.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) (C), Democratic Conference Chair Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) (R), and House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA) (L) and other House Democrats arrive for a news conference on the House steps on November 12, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

DNC's Proposed RCV Ban Sparks Debate Over 2028 Presidential Primaries

Democratic National Committee insiders are poised to ban the use of ranked choice voting (RCV) in selecting their presidential nominee in 2028 – overriding presidential primary laws in Maine and Washington, D.C, and squashing great interest in this use of RCV among state legislators and the many state parties who run their own primaries.

Presidential primaries are among the most compelling use cases for RCV. They draw crowded fields of candidates that voters get to know and are eager to rank rather than be limited to one. Parties must unite their big tent of voters, and RCV rewards unifying candidates. The sequential nature of primaries is a problematic fit with early voting – in 2020, for example, more than three million Democratic voters cast a ballot for a candidate who had withdrawn before that vote was counted.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2026