Legal victory in Arizona!
Ballots collected from people who live in remote areas, mostly Latinos and Native Americans will be in play this year
Late Friday afternoon, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily enjoined Arizona’s new law that made it a felony for anyone other than a relative or caretaker to pick up and mail in someone’s absentee ballot.
Before Republican Governor Doug Ducey signed the law earlier this year, third-party groups like Mi Familia Vota and Promise Arizona would call up thousands of Arizona households and offer to collect their absentee ballots. Both progressive and conservative organizations used this method, but progressive groups were more effective.
“There are so many people who would count on groups they trust coming and picking up their ballot for them,” Pstross said. “Everyone had has things lost in the mail, so they trust these groups more than they trust the postal service. They feel it’s better to give it to someone who you know who is going to turn it in for you.”
Pstross and other voting rights advocates said they feared the policy — which will no longer be enforced for this election — could hurt someone trying to do a favor for an elderly neighbor or nursing home resident.
“We’re worried that, say, someone who works at a retirement home could show up with 50 to 100 ballots,” she said. “They’re a legitimate caretaker, but even if they’re totally within the law, a crazy person could challenge and intimidate them.”
Though absentee ballot fraud is the most common kind of voter fraud, it is still extremely rare. A massive study of a decade of U.S. voting practices found 491 absentee ballot prosecutions out of hundreds of millions of votes cast over a decade nationwide.
Appeals Court Judge Stephen Reinhardt wrote that Arizona has not shown any evidence of the widespread fraud they cited when they implemented what he called an “unconscionable” ban on ballot collection.
can it just be tomorrow ffs? the wait is killing me.
I love Maury.