California judge rejects voting lawsuit from Sanders supporters

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected a lawsuit brought by supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to extend California’s voter registration window.

California’s election rules allow voters without a party preference to vote in the Democratic presidential primary but require them to take some extra steps to obtain presidential ballots.

Arguing that a lack of information about that process risked disenfranchising voters, a group of plaintiffs that include the pro-Sanders Voting Rights Defense Project sued to extend the voter registration deadline, allow write-in ballots and launch an information campaign “via radio, TV, newspaper, internet social media platforms.”

But Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California rebuffed that argument, saying he did not believe voters were being disadvantaged.

“The citizens of California are smart enough to know what their rights are, and smart enough to go into a polling place and say, ‘I’m a (no-party preference voter) and want a cross-over ballot,” Alsup said, according to the Associated Press. “We don’t need to overeducate them with public service announcements that are going on anyway.”

Plaintiffs attorney Bill Simpich said they had no plan to appeal the decision.

“I don’t think that’s the smart thing to do,” Simpich said, saying instead “the important thing is to focus on education” between now and the June 7 election.

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 5:54 PM with the headline "California judge rejects voting lawsuit from Sanders supporters."