Friday, November 4, 2016

BULLETIN: Arizona Out-of-Precinct Votes Will NOT Be Counted, Per 9th Circuit En Banc Panel (READ)

A 7-4 vote by a panel of 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges ruled late this afternoon that Arizona voters who cast ballots out of their precinct on Election Day will not have their votes count.

The en banc panel will consider whether that should change for future elections, but specifically said that it will not apply to the 2016 election taking place this coming Tuesday.

The issue was one of several stemming from the lawsuit that national and Arizona Democrats - including the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigns - brought in the wake of the March Presidential Preference Election.

In another of the issues stemming from that case, earlier today the 9th Circuit STOPPED the Arizona ban on so-called "ballot harvesting". During the next four days, groups will be allowed to gather voters' COMPLETED ballots for delivery to elections officials on either Monday or Tuesday.

Election law expert Professor Rick Hasen writes tonight that he would expect the Democrats to try to immediately bring this to the U.S. Supreme Court, but that a likely 4-4 split on the short-handed high court would leave the 9th Circuit's decision in place.

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