Michigan Court of Claims to decide fusion voting case as League of Women Voters weighs in

A Michigan Court of Claims judge could determine whether the state’s ban on fusion voting remains in place, in deciding a set of lawsuits filed earlier this year.

At the beginning of the summer, the Michigan Libertarian Party and the Michigan Common Sense Party, co-founded by Jeff Timmer, a former executive director of the Michigan Republican Party and a senior adviser to the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, took legal action aiming to invalidate the state’s ban on fusion voting.

The practice, which has been prohibited in Michigan since 1895, allows multiple political parties to nominate a candidate, with all the votes cast for that candidate going toward the total number of votes they received when calculating election results. The practice is only legal in a handful of states and is only actively used in New York and Connecticut.

“Under our current system, minor parties are spoilers, protest vehicles, or repositories for wasted votes,” Timmer said in a news release Monday about the lawsuit. “Fusion voting changes that equation completely. It allows smaller parties to become force multipliers, rather than spoilers, and gives voters the ability to support both the candidates who can win and the political parties that best represent their values.”

While the Michigan Common Sense Party and the Michigan Libertarian Party initially filed two cases challenging the state’s ban on fusion voting, one with the Court of Claims and one in Ingham County Circuit Court, the cases have been consolidated in the Court of Claims. 

In their suit, the parties asked the court to strike down the state’s ban on fusion voting, and bar the secretary of state and the director of the Michigan Bureau of Elections from enforcing the ban.

The League of Women Voters of Michigan has also backed the lawsuit, filing a brief in late September.

The league argues the ban on fusion voting violates Michigan’s constitutional protections for the fundamental right to vote and guarantees of freedom of association, speech and expression, while creating a significant unfair advantage for major political parties over minor parties. 

While the defendants, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Director of Elections Jonathan Brater, have filed a motion for summary disposition, which would allow the court to resolve the case without moving to full trial, both the parties and the league have asked Judge Michael Gadola to deny the motion and rule in the party’s favor.

Gadola has yet to issue a final ruling on the case.