Minor parties in Michigan are suing to allow fusion voting, calling current law anti-competition
Two lawsuits filed in state court in mid-May, one in the state’s Court of Claims and the other in Ingham County Circuit Court, are seeking to end Michigan’s longtime ban on a practice known as fusion voting — allowing multiple parties to nominate the same candidate to be listed on the ballot.
Proponents of fusion voting, which is used in just a handful of states, argue that it allows voters to cast their ballot for a party which they feel best represents their own views, even if that is not one of the two major parties, while still voting for a candidate that has legitimate electoral viability.
In a fusion voting case, a candidate can be listed under as many party labels as nominate them, and then their votes under all of those parties are added together to calculate their complete vote total. In New York, for example, one of the states where fusion voting is used, a candidate can be listed under both the Democratic Party and the Working Families Party, a progressive minor political party, and the candidate will get to count the total votes cast for their name.
In Michigan, Jeff Timmer, the one-time executive director of the Michigan Republican Party and now a senior advisor for the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, explained that it is important now as some former Republicans and conservative-leaning independents are seeking an alternative from MAGA Republicans without voting for a Democrat in name — but also seeking to cast their vote for a candidate with a reasonable chance of winning an election. He calls these voters “politically homeless” in Michigan, and claims that fusion voting can fix that.
https://michiganadvance.com/2026/06/02/minor-parties-in-michigan-are-suing-to-allow-fusion-voting-calling-current-law-anti-competition/