Leslie Feldman v. Arizona Sec'y of State's Ofc.

FOR PUBLICATION FILED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS OCT 28 2016

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK

U.S. COURT OF APPEALS

LESLIE FELDMAN; LUZ No. 16-16698

MAGALLANES; MERCEDEZ HYMES;

JULIO MORERA; CLEO OVALLE; D.C. No. 2:16-cv-01065-DLR PETERSON ZAH, Former Chairman and First President of the Navajo Nation; THE

DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL OPINION

COMMITTEE; DSCC, AKA Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee; THE

ARIZONA DEMOCRATIC PARTY;

KIRKPATRICK FOR U.S. SENATE;

HILLARY FOR AMERICA,

Plaintiffs-Appellants,

BERNIE 2016, INC.,

Intervenor-Plaintiff- Appellant,

v.

ARIZONA SECRETARY OF STATE’S

OFFICE; MICHELE REAGAN, in her official capacity as Secretary of State of Arizona; MARICOPA COUNTY BOARD

OF SUPERVISORS; DENNY BARNEY;

STEVE CHUCRI; ANDY KUNASEK;

CLINT HICKMAN; STEVE

GALLARDO, member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, in their official capacities; MARICOPA COUNTY

RECORDER AND ELECTIONS

DEPARTMENT; HELEN PURCELL, in her official capacity as Maricopa County Recorder; KAREN OSBORNE, in her official capacity as Maricopa…

Dissent by Chief Judge THOMAS

OPINION

In April 2016, Leslie Feldman and other appellants 1 brought an action in district court challenging Arizona House Bill 2023 *1061 (H.B. 2023), which precludes individuals who do not fall into one of several exceptions (e.g., election officials, mail carriers, family members, household members, and specified caregivers) from collecting early ballots from another person. See 2016 Ariz. Legis. Serv. Ch. 5, § 1 (H.B. 2023) (West) (codified at Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-1005 (H)-(I)). According to Feldman, this state statute violates § 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 52 U.S.C. § 10301 , the Fourteenth Amendment, and the First Amendment 2 because, among other things, it disproportionately and adversely impacts minorities, unjustifiably burdens the right to vote, and interferes with the freedom of association. After the district court denied Feldman’s motion for a preliminary injunction, Feld-man filed this emergency interlocutory appeal. Because the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion, we affirm.

I

The district court’s order denying the motion for a preliminary injunction sets forth the facts in detail, Feldman v.…

dissenting:

Arizona has criminalized one of the most popular and effective methods by which minority voters cast their ballots. Because this law violates the Constitution and the Voting Rights Act, I must respectfully dissent.

I

Like most states, Arizona allows voters to cast a ballot on election day at a polling place, or to cast an early absentee vote, either in person or by mail. A.R.S. § 16-541. Early voting has become increasingly popular in Arizona, as evidenced by the fact that 81% of ballots cast in the last Presidential election were cast by early voting, a 12% increase from the 2012 election. An important reason for the increase in early voting is that Arizona has substantially reduced the number of polling places, resulting in extraordinarily long lines, with voters waiting many hours to cast their ballots. In one urban area, there is one voting center for nearly 70,000 registered voters. In some precincts in Maricopa County, voters waited for four hours to cast their ballots in the Presidential Preference Primary election earlier this year. In other precincts, the wait was up to six hours. Compounding the problem is that, in Maricopa County in particular, polling…