Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said on Thursday that a Supreme Court decision upholding two state voting laws was a significant victory for states enacting “common sense” voting protections.
In a 6-3 decision, the court found that Arizona’s ballot harvesting ban and its requirement that Election Day ballots be cast in the voter’s home precinct, shooting down a charge from the Democratic National Convention that the rules were racially discriminatory.
SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS ARIZONA VOTING RULES, INCLUDING BALLOT-HARVESTING BAN
But on top of that, Brnovich told the Washington Examiner, the decision was a massive win for federalism in elections, meaning that states ultimately have the right to decide the time, place, and manner in which voting occurs.
The decision also sends a message for future battles over voting laws, Brnovich added.
“We have to maintain confidence in the process and of the integrity of the results,” he said, saying that he was grateful to the court for delivering a clear opinion on the subject.
The court’s decision came as Arizona Republicans continue to audit the 2020 election results after many people in state questioned President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over former President Donald Trump. The results of the audit, which is aimed at improving Arizona election laws, are expected to be announced later this summer.
The case arose before the 2016 election after the DNC alleged that the Republican-led voting provisions violated Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which bars racial discrimination in elections. The DNC’s case rested on the fact that since the laws were enacted, they appeared to have a disparate effect on minority communities within the state.
But that effect did not make the laws discriminatory, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the court’s majority opinion. Instead, Alito said, the text of the act requires that laws allow for an “equal opportunity” for people to vote. The majority of the court determined that both laws did.
The decision was considered a crushing defeat for Democrats, many of whom lashed out at the Supreme Court for upholding the Arizona laws. Biden said in a statement that he was “deeply disappointed” by the decision, claiming that it was actually an attack on election integrity.
“The attack we are seeing today makes clearer than ever that additional laws are needed to safeguard that beating heart of our democracy,” Biden said. “We must also shore up our election security to address the threats of election subversion from abroad and at home.”
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The DNC reacted with similar disappointment but said that the decision should fuel the party to fight harder in future election law disputes.
“This ruling is exactly why we urgently need to take action at the state and federal levels to protect voters from Republicans’ unprecedented efforts to undermine the right to vote,” said DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison.
