DETROIT (AP) -- The Macomb County clerk says roadblocks to voting should be eliminated, and she's doing her part by mailing applications for absentee ballots to all senior citizens in the county.
But the Michigan Republican Party is backing an effort to block Carmella Sabaugh from mailing unsolicited applications for this year's remaining elections, claiming the practice is outside county government's authority.
A Michigan Court of Appeals panel heard arguments on the issue during a Wednesday hearing attended by about three dozen Macomb seniors who traveled to Detroit by bus.
Four plaintiffs recruited by the GOP sued Sabaugh, a Democrat, after her office mailed absentee ballot applications to residents 60 and older in 2006. A Circuit Court judge, citing a county Board of Commissioners resolution that authorized the mailings and budgeted money for them, upheld Sabaugh.
But the plaintiffs took the case to the appellate court, arguing that only the Legislature has the power to regulate how elections are conducted.
Senior citizens who want to apply for an absentee ballot can do so on their own, said plaintiffs' attorney Eric Doster.
"The county clerk has absolutely no role in this process," Doster said after the hearing. "If (officials in Sabaugh's office) want to do what they want to do, lobby the Legislature for a remedy."
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