High Court Upholds Arizona Voting Rules
In a ruling announced Thursday, the justices said the "out-of-precinct" policy and the ban on "ballot harvesting" don’t violate the Voting Rights Act. But voting rights groups say the decision will curtail voting rights for minority constituents.
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In a possible blow to voting rights, the Supreme Court has upheld two voting rules in Arizona, finding the restrictions don’t violate a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, reports Yahoo News. Democrats first challenged these rules in 2016, arguing that they violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
The first rule — the “out-of-precinct” policy — discards provisional ballots cast by a voter in the wrong precinct. The other, a ban on “ballot harvesting,” allows only a voter’s family member or caregiver to return an absentee ballot, imposing criminal penalties on those who break the rule.
The High Court upheld the rules after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated them, demonstrating that both rules disparately affected Black and Hispanic voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act.
Now, with the Supreme Court’s affirmation of these regulations, voting rights’ advocates and organizations fear a further weakening of fair elections.
The Supreme Court ruling, which was split 6-3 along ideological lines, could bolster Republican-led efforts to limit access to the polls. Following the 2020 election, which former president Donald Trump baselessly said was rigged, several Republican-led states have passed measures that tighten election rules.
