The Republican Party of Arizona on Thursday celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the state’s statute banning ballot harvesting as a “massive victory for election integrity.”
“This is a massive victory for election integrity,” Dr. Kelli Ward, chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party, said in a statement following the decision upholding the Grand Canyon State’s ban on ballot harvesting — a practice that allows third parties to collect and deliver ballots.
“The Court saw right through the Democrats’ baseless accusations against our state’s ballot harvesting ban. Ensuring that the chain of custody with mail-in ballots remains intact is a vital part of ensuring election integrity, and this law helps to do just that,” she continued.
“The Republican Party of Arizona is grateful for the U.S. Supreme Court’s wise decision on this issue,” Ward added.
The Arizona GOP noted that the ramifications of the SCOTUS decision expand far beyond Arizona, as over two dozen other states “have similar laws against ballot harvesting.”
In the 6-3 decision, the Court determined that “neither Arizona’s HB 2023 banning ballot harvesting nor the policy outlawing out-of-precinct voting violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act which bans racial discrimination,” as Breitbart News reported.
Penning the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito rejected that HB 2023, which bans ballot harvesting, violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, concluding the plaintiffs were “unable to provide statistical evidence showing that HB 2023 had a disparate impact on minority voters.”
“Even if the plaintiffs had shown a disparate burden caused by HB 2023, the State’s justification would suffice to avoid Section 2 liability,” he wrote. “A State indisputably has a compelling interest in preserving the integrity of its election process.”
“The Court holds that Arizona’s out-of-precinct policy and its ban on ballot harvesting do not violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and the ban on ballot harvesting was not enacted with a racially discriminatory purpose,” Alito continued.
Heritage Action also applauded the SCOTUS decision.
“The Supreme Court’s decision in Brnovich today is an enormous win for election integrity and voter confidence,” Heritage Action Vice President Garrett Bess said in a statement.
“Heritage Action applauds the Supreme Court for upholding Arizona’s election integrity efforts that make it easier to vote and harder to cheat,” he continued, urging state officials across the nation to “take note and work to enact similar policies in their states.”
The case is Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, No. 19–1257 in the Supreme Court of the United States.
