Supreme Court Likely To Issue Major Ruling on Ballot Harvesting Soon
June 29, 2021 | District of Columbia
The Supreme Court is poised to issue a major ruling that could impact the practice of “ballot harvesting” across the United States.
The court’s justices are set to hand down their last opinions of their current session on Thursday, perhaps including on a voting rights case that calls into question Arizona’s law that bans ballot harvesting—or the practice of collecting ballots for delivery. Also under consideration is the state’s law that mandates the dismissal of ballots that were cast in the wrong voting district.
After the Democratic National Committee filed a lawsuit against the laws, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the Democrats and overturned them. Later, Arizona state Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, appealed that decision to the Supreme Court.
The GOP-controlled Arizona Legislature passed a ballot harvesting bill in 2016 that made the practice—typically carried out by Democratic-aligned groups—of going door-to-door asking people to take their ballots to a local polling place unlawful. The law makes exceptions for family members, caregivers, and people living in the same household. Republicans have said this would eliminate fraud and other irregularities.
(Excerpts from the Epoch Times)
