By Richard Wolf | USA TODAY
The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether Arizona’s ban on mail-in ballot collection methods violates the Voting Rights Act.
The high court also will decide whether the state can continue to discard ballots cast at the wrong precinct.
While the state’s policies are in place for the November election, the high court’s action will come later and thus will have no effect on the presidential or Senate races there. The court is likely to hear the case in January and decide it by June.
At issue is Arizona’s law, passed in 2016, that bars third-party collection of ballots. Republicans contend it cuts down on election fraud, but the state has not seen any such fraud linked to ballot collection.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled in January that the ban on “ballot harvesting” violates the Voting Rights Act. The court said it discriminates against Blacks, Latinos and indigenous populations.
“This will be a fascinating case to watch. The Supreme Court will now be deliberating on a ballot collection matter that detractors call “ballot harvesting.” The Arizona law permits only certain persons, including family and household members and mail carriers, to handle your early ballot. The law was challenged in federal court and was upheld by a district court and upheld by a Ninth Circuit panel. However, the Ninth Circuit, en banc, reversed the rulings. The questions presented to the Supreme Court are whether Arizona’s ballot-harvesting law violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and/or the Fifteenth Amendment? This will be a case of an argument for voting rights on one side and preservation of the ‘sanctity of the ballot’ on the other side.” Tom Galvin
