On Monday, an Arizona judge rejected the state's Republican Party's request that would have banned voting by mail for the 2022 elections, according to the Associated Press.
Kelli Ward, chair of the Arizona Republican Party, has been leading an effort to put an end to the no-excuse absentee voting system, which the state Legislature established in 1991. The system allows for any voter to submit a mail-in ballot.
The no-excuse absentee voting system provides voters with secrecy protections, according to The Arizona Republic, by making sure the votes aren't visible through the envelope. The envelopes are also designed to be "tamper evident," allowing for election workers to know if the ballot had been opened.
Mail-in ballots that are returned and in-person votes are not distinguished by Arizona, but a large amount are often submitted by mail. According to PolitiFact, about 89% of people in Arizona casted their ballots early in the 2020 election.
Overall, there were 3,420,565 ballots casted in Arizona during the 2020 election out of 4,281,301 registered voters, according to the Arizona Secretary of State website.
Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen decided to reject the Republican Party's attempt after pointing out that there is nothing in Arizona Constitution that would prevent citizens from choosing to vote by mail.
"The laws are far from perfect and nobody anticipated thirty years ago that approximately 90 percent of Arizona voters would vote by mail-in ballot during a pandemic, but these laws are NOT in violation of the Arizona Constitution," Jantzen wrote.
Former President Donald Trump has continued to claim that he lost the 2020 election because of fraudulent mail-in votes, and has pointed towards Arizona as a state he should have won. President Joe Biden received 1,672,143 votes in the state, while Trump received 1,661,686 votes.
Arizona Democratic Party Chair Raquel Teran said that the Arizona Republican Party's attempt to ban mail-in voting "embarrassing."
"Arizona Democrats defended democracy and won, striking down the AZ GOP’s shameful, embarrassing, and unconstitutional effort to try and end early voting in our state," Teran said in a statement.
The Republican Party of Arizona posted a statement to Twitter after the court ruling, and said they "will continue to fight for election integrity."
"The Republican Party of Arizona, under Chairwoman Dr. Kelli Ward, is concerned that if this ruling stands, Arizona's most vulnerable voters will be deprived of the protections to which they are constitutionally entitled."
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