Supreme Court takes up Arizona voting rights law that will be heard after the election

One provision concerns an "out of precinct policy" that does not count provisional ballots cast in person on Election Day outside of the voter's designated precinct. Another concerns the "ballot collection law" which permits only certain persons — family and household members, caregivers, mail carriers and elections officials — to handle another person's completed ballot.

The dispute will not be resolved before the election because the argument calendar is already full through December.

Mark Brnovich, Arizona's attorney general, called the provisions "commonplace election administration provisions" used by Arizona and "dozens of states." Over the dissent of four judges, the majority invalidated two commonplace election administration provisions used by Arizona and dozens of other states to prevent multiple voting, protect against voter intimidation, preserve the secrecy of the ballot, and safeguard election integrity.

But Marc Elias, a lawyer for the Democratic National Committee, argued that Supreme Court precedents and the law compelled the lower court to conclude that Arizona's wholesale rejection of ballots cast out of precinct and its criminalization of ballot collection violated Voting Rights Act.

A district court upheld these provisions, and the 9th Circuit affirmed, but a large panel of judges reversed.