Arizona Supreme Court declines GOP request to end early voting

The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an effort by the Arizona Republican Party to deem early voting unconstitutional. 

The case, filed by the state Republican Party and Yvonne Cahill, who is the party’s secretary, looked to argue that the state constitution only allows for in-person voting on Election Day and argued the court should at a minimum eliminate the ability to get an absentee ballot without a specific reason for needing one — such as being away from one’s precinct on election day.

But Chief Justice Robert Brutinel, who issued the Tuesday order, said the argument lacked factual records about the matter. Brutinel was appointed to the court in 2010 by Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican.

Arizona’s top election official, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, has opposed the case backed by the Arizona GOP. In a Tuesday tweet, she called the GOP lawsuit “dangerous.”

“Today, the Arizona Supreme Court dismissed a dangerous lawsuit that threatened early voting in the state and challenged provisions of the Elections Procedures Manual,” Hobbs tweeted.

“Arizona voters will still be able to vote early, access drop boxes, and make their voices heard,” she added.

Gov. Doug Ducey (R) has also voiced opposition to the idea, saying that “it would undo the work of many Republican governors and secretaries of state over the past several decades,” according to The Arizona Daily Star.

In the 2020 election, 90 percent of Arizona voters voted by mail in the election, which had no evidence of widespread fraud.