This is an important day for voting rights, as U.S. Supreme Court justices today will consider whether to maintain two Republican-backed voting restrictions in Arizona in a case that could further weaken the Voting Rights Act, a typical 1965 federal law. which hampered racial discrimination in the vote. .
The important issue for suffrage comes before judges at a time when Republicans in many states are pursuing new restrictions after former President Donald Trump made false allegations in the November 3 election of widespread fraud he lost against Joe Biden.
Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley report to Reuters that the judges will hear arguments in appeals by Arizona’s Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich and the state Republican Party over a lower court ruling that found the relevant voting restrictions black, Spanish and Native American voters taxed excessively. .
One of the measures makes it a crime to give the completed early voting of another person to election officials, with the exception of family members or caregivers. The other disqualified ballot papers are personally brought out to a district other than the one to which a voter has been assigned.
Community activists sometimes take part in collecting ballot papers to facilitate voting and increase voter turnout. The practice, which critics call ‘voting of the ballot papers’, is legal in most states, with various restrictions. Advocates of the right to vote said that voters sometimes accidentally vote in the wrong environment, with the allocated polling station sometimes not the closest to the polling station.
A broad ruling by the Supreme Court, of which the 6-3 Conservative majority includes three judges appointed by Trump, endorsing the restrictions, could hurt the Voting Rights Act by proving the transgressions more difficult. Such a decision could have an impact on the 2022 midterm elections in which Republicans are trying to regain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Judgment must be delivered by the end of June.
In the Arizona case, section 2 of the Voting Rights Act prohibits any rule that results in discrimination of votes based on race or color. This provision was the main tool used to show that voting boundaries discriminate against minorities since the court in 2013 removed another part of the law that stipulated that states with a history of racial discrimination required federal approval to pass the voting laws alter.
According to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, last year, Arizona’s restrictions are in violation of the Voting Rights Act, although it remains in effect for the November 3 election. The 9th Circuit also found that ‘false, race-based claims of false fraud’ were used to persuade Arizona lawmakers to impose the discriminatory intent, which violates the U.S. Constitution ‘ban on voting on the basis of race. deny.