January 27, 2020 / Modified jan 27, 2020 4:03 p.m.

Federal appeals court throws out Arizona voting laws it says impact minorities

The 9th Circuit split decision affects precinct-based voting errors and so-called ballot harvesting.

Early Ballot, Early Voting A Pima County vote-by-mail envelope.
AZPM

The judges on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday threw out an Arizona law allowing the ballots cast in the wrong precinct to be wholly discarded. The court also struck down a 2016 law barring a practice known as ballot harvesting.

In the 7-4 ruling, the majority of en banc panel wrote that not counting votes that are not precinct dependent is discriminatory to minorities. The judges pointed out that votes for governor, president and U.S. senator, for example, are not dependent on a person's voting precinct.

The judges noted that research shows Arizona frequently changes voting precincts. They said those changes disproportionately affect Native Americans, Hispanics and African Americans.

The ruling also pointed out research that showed Arizona threw out more provisional ballots than other states. Provisional ballots are cast when there is a question about whether or not a voter is eligible to vote. One of the most common reasons for provisional ballot issuance, according to the court, is wrong precinct voting.

The ruling also struck down a 2016 Arizona law that prohibited the practice known as ballot harvesting. That is the practice of an individual or group collecting a large number of voted mail-in ballots for delivery to county election officials.

The court found that the ban also largely affects minorities. The judges pointed to research that showed only 18% of Native Americans in Arizona have mail delivered directly to their homes, thus making it harder to return mail-in ballots.

The ruling could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona