Several Navajo Nation citizens with concerns about the U. S. Postal Service are asking a court to ensure their ballots will still be counted in Arizona even if delivered late.
The group filed a lawsuit in federal court Wednesday challenging the state’s current law, which says election officials cannot count mail-in ballots received after election night.
The lawsuit contends that mail service is so much slower and less accessible for many Arizonans living on reservations that the existing deadline will disenfranchise some voters even as they put their ballots in the mail well in advance of the state’s deadline.
Novotny cited data by Four Directions, a voting rights group backing the lawsuit which said it recently tested postal delivery. The group found that while certified first class mail from Scottsdale arrived at the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office less than 18 hours later, certified mail sent from locations in the Navajo Nation took five to six days to reach local county recorders. That mail was routed through Phoenix and Albuquerque in some cases, taking routes that stretched hundreds of miles.Get the Politics Main newsletter in your inbox.
Four Directions and the lawsuit filed Wednesday argued the unequal access to voting by mail violates the Voting Rights Act.
Source: Arizona Republic; 8/27/20
