Ruling...

 

 US supreme court has upheld two Arizona voting restrictions in a ruling that dealt a major addition to the Voting Rights Act, the landmark 1965 civil rights law.

In a 6-3 ruling, the justices upheld Arizona statutes that prohibit anyone other than a close family member or caregiver from collecting mail-in ballots, which are widely used in the state.

The court also upheld a statute that requires officials to wholly reject votes from people who show up to cast a ballot in the wrong precinct, even if the person is otherwise entitled to vote in the state

Neither Arizona’s out-of-precinct rule nor its ballot-collection law violates §2 of the VRA. Arizona’s out-of-precinct rule enforces the requirement that voters who choose to vote in person on election day must do so in their assigned precincts,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for a majority that included the court’s five other conservative justices, referring to section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

He added: “Having to identify one’s own polling place and then travel there to vote does not exceed the ‘usual burdens of voting’.”

The decision means that the Arizona statutes will remain in effect and make it harder to challenge discriminatory voting laws across the US at a time when a swath of Republican-run state legislatures are pushing a wave of new voting restrictions.

Let us do it right, unlike the Mayoral Primary election in New York City last week.

  Just a thought.