Michigan's January 15 presidential primary has been thrown out, thanks to a lawsuit brought by activists, journalists, and a list vendor.
Michigan's January 15 presidential primary was passed as an in-your-face defiance of national party schedules and the traditional place of Iowa and New Hampshire. It was also a creaky political compromise that included some dubious provisions.
Michigan is an open-primary state, but presidential primary voters must declare a party in order to have a valid preference that can count for delegate selection. The compromise for the January 15 primary required voters to make that declaration, but also required election officials to keep it secret -- and then disclose those lists only to the Democratic and Republican state party chairs.
A lawsuit was brought against this; the plaintiffs argued that using public funds to create a list available only to party leadership was unconstitutional. The plaintiffs included former Detroit Free Press political columnist Hugh McDiarmid, and Ingham County Commissioner and Democratic list vendor Mark Grebner.
Today, Ingham County Circuit Judge William Collette ruled that the plaintiffs are correct, and the private list provision is invalid. Moreover, since the presidential primary law has a non-severability clause, meaning that the invalidity of any part makes the whole law invalid, the entire primary law has been struck down.
See the Detroit Detroit Free Press bulletin.