Arizona Supreme Court rejects GOP request to invalidate mail voting

[MarineCombatEngineer]

April 5, 2022, 7:06 PM PDT / Source: Associated Press
By Associated Press
PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court declined Tuesday to consider a request by the Arizona Republican Party to eliminate the early voting system used by 90 percent of the state’s voters and require nearly all voters to cast ballots in person on Election Day.

The court ruled that the case did not meet the limited criteria for a lawsuit filed directly to the state’s high court but said the GOP could take its case to Superior Court.

The lawsuit filed in February argued absentee voting is unconstitutional and asked the justices to get rid of it or at least eliminate the no-excuse absentee balloting system Arizona adopted in 1991 and has steadily expanded ever since.

The lawsuit comes amid GOP efforts on many fronts to remake the system for casting and counting votes as former President Donald Trump repeats the lie that he lost the 2020 election because of fraud in Arizona and other battleground states. It was blasted by Democrats and voting rights advocates who said the argument was deeply flawed and aimed at undermining elections.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/arizona-supreme-court-rejects-gop-request-invalidate-mail-voting-rcna23139


Well, whadda know, some good news for a change out of my home state of AZ.

[barbaraann]

1. "...but said that the GOP could take its case to Superior Court." Is this good or bad? n/t

[MarineCombatEngineer]

3. The AZ Supreme Court is the final say on matters of AZ law,

so, they can try, but it will fail.

[former9thward]

6. This was a procedural ruling.

The AZ SC said nothing about the merits of the suit.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

9. Ah, ok.

Thank you for that, I don't get home very much these days, I'm usually out 2-3 weeks, then I'll take a few days off to recharge and get my rig serviced if needed.

Let's hope it sticks.

[former9thward]

10. Whatever happens I doubt they would change things for the midterms.

The primary is less than 4 months away

[gratuitous]

5. My reading is that they petitioned the state Supreme Court directly

That sort of filing (at least in Oregon) requires a showing of extraordinary urgency to skip the lower courts. It sounds like the state Supreme Court didn't think the Republicans' direct petition satisfied that requirement. In essence, the Republicans wanted to go directly to the end instead of starting at square one. The Supreme Court told them they had gone about this wrongly, and to start from square one.

It's good in that a final decision on their petition is postponed, probably until after the 2022 election. Unless, of course, the Republicans demand some kind of expedited decisions from the lower courts so they can get to the state Supreme Court faster, and whether the Arizona state courts will accommodate them or not is the question we're left with. I think the Supreme Court has issued this decision in a way that signals the lower courts that they should take their time to thoroughly brief the matter and consider their decisions carefully. At least, that's my wholly-uninformed optimistic take.

[Mad_Machine76]

8. Do States have "shadow dockets"?

[former9thward]

11. AZ does and I imagine most states do.

There are just too many cases to give full opinions on everything.

[gab13by13]

2. Good for Arizona,

here in Pa. my mail in ballot application is sitting waiting on our Supreme Court.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

4. Wonderful

I'm sure Donny the dumbfuck is not happy.

[budkin]

7. Don't worry, SCOTUS will take care of it

Because that's just how it is now.