Nina Totenburg of NPR reported today on a case that U.S. Supreme Court will hear today challenging some Arizona laws governing voting. Here's a salient quote re: rural Arizona and the Navajo nation:
At issue are two Arizona laws. The first bars the counting of provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct. The second, and more important, provision bars the collection of absentee ballots by anyone other than a family member or caregiver.
Former Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez says that this just isn't practical for many of Arizona's rural voters.
"I don't think you can understand this case without understanding the geography of Arizona," Perez explains. "The Navajo Nation is 27,000 square miles. It's bigger than West Virginia. It's very remote. There's a lot of abject poverty."
Many people aren't even on a postal route, he observes. "Some people have to travel an hour or two to get to a mailbox, and so voting requires the active assistance of friends and neighbors."
That active assistance often involves community and party activists who collect absentee ballots from people who don't have cars so that the sealed ballots can be delivered to a post office or drop box. The Republican-dominated state legislature wants to make such assistance a felony.
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