Federal Court Blocks Two Provisions of Arizona Voter Suppression Law
In an order issued on Monday, September 26, the United States District Court for the District of Arizona blocked two provisions of Arizona’s Senate Bill 1260 that imposed unnecessary burdens on Arizona voters.
“Arizona’s Senate Bill 1260 contained several troublesome provisions that could lead to mass disenfranchisement of Arizona residents in violation of their constitutional rights. We are glad to see the Court strike down two of the bill’s most harmful provisions, the felony and cancellation provisions, after the lawsuit we filed on behalf of Voto Latino, the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans, and Priorities USA. We will keep fighting in court to permanently block this harmful law and protect the voting rights of Arizonans,” said Aria Branch, Elias Law Group Partner.
The first blocked provision, the felony provision, made it a crime to provide a “mechanism for voting,” including by forwarding a ballot, to an Arizona voter who is also registered in another state, even if the voter is properly registered and only intends to vote in Arizona. The Court found this provision overly vague in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.
The second blocked provision, the cancellation provision, required county recorders to cancel a voter’s registration, without notifying the voter, if they receive confirmation that the voter is registered in another county. In the ruling, Judge G. Murray Snow found that the provision was in “direct conflict” with the National Voter Registration Act.
Elias Law Group attorneys Aria Branch, Tina Meng, Joel Ramirez, Spencer Klein, and Dan Cohen contributed to this case.
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