Opinion ID: 2977166
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Harm to Defendants

Text: The defendants assert that it is both “possible” and “feasible” for them to comply with the preliminary injunction. Defs.’ Mot. for Stay at 38. They raise two potential harms they will face if the requested stay is not granted: (1) changing procedures to comply with the preliminary injunction will cause a resource drain for state and local officials; and (2) the reactivation required by the preliminary injunction will revive old records, so that if previously rejected individuals later re-registered to vote at a new address, their previous address will spring back up in the system, creating new inaccuracies. Id. at 38-39. The defendants dispense with the second potential harm themselves, stating that a software program will have to be written to prevent potential errors. Id. at 39. The defendants do not, however, forecast great confusion associated with the implementation of this new software. Nor do they predict, after implementing this program, that any changes produced in compliance with the district court’s preliminary injunction will result in erroneous disenfranchisement. Accordingly, the only harm left is the potential resource drain for state and local officials, of which writing the new computer program for the QVF is one aspect.11 We are cognizant of Supreme Court decisions counseling courts to exercise “proper judicial restraint” before making “precipitate changes” to election procedures and policies when “an impending election is imminent and a State’s election machinery is already in progress.” Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 585-86 (1964); see also Purcell v. Gonzalez, 549 U.S. 1, 7-8 (2006). We have taken this potential practical problem into careful consideration, and we do not make light of the burden that the district court’s ruling may impose on Michigan’s Secretary of State. Purcell, 11 The defendants’ reply brief suggests that the administrative burden is greater than they once thought. However, we are considering whether to stay the district court’s decision to grant a preliminary injunction, a decision that we review itself only for abuse of discretion, and this new argument was never presented to the district court. Accordingly, we cannot say that the district court abused its discretion by believing defendants’ earlier indications that the burden was minimal. No. 08-2352 United States Student Ass’n Foundation et al. v. Land et al. Page 12 however, demands “careful consideration” of any legal challenge that involves “the possibility that qualified voters might be turned away from the polls.” Purcell, 549 U.S. at 7. In this case, the district court’s preliminary injunction ensures that qualified voters whose registrations were rejected due to the undeliverable-voter-ID-card practice will not be turned away at the polls. Moreover, the district court has determined that staying the preliminary injunction would likely put individual voters at risk of disenfranchisement. Additionally, the preliminary injunction affects a small fraction of Michigan voters, at most 5500 individuals, and the change is therefore not a “precipitate” alteration to the state’s entire voting methodology. See Defs.’ Mot. for Stay at 39. Moreover, defendants have already ceased using the undeliverable-voter-ID-card practice, see Pls.’ Resp. to Mot. for Stay, Ex. 7 (Mich. Dep’t of State, Federal Court Ruling), and appear already to have identified the voters whose voter status must be changed based on the preliminary injunction, see Defs.’ Mot. for Stay at 39 (noting how many individuals must be reactivated). Given the fact that defendants have quickly succeeded in complying with these components of the preliminary injunction, we cannot see how implementing the final step of the preliminary injunction, changing these voters’ designation on the QVF as ordered by the district court, will cause irreparable harm. To the contrary, we conclude that defendants have shown no real harm to themselves or to voters especially in light of the fact that the preliminary injunction permits defendants to label these voters “verify” and require further verification of their eligibility at the polls. Because the only harm that the defendants assert is an administrative burden that they admit to be manageable, we conclude that this factor weighs against granting the requested stay.