PHOENIX — A federal appeals court has given the go-ahead for the state to enforce a 2022 law that challengers argued could inadvertently make felons out of volunteers who register people to vote.
In a 35-page opinion Friday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments by three organizations that the law is so poorly written that anyone reading it would not know what is — and is not — legal. And that, they said, makes it unconstitutionally too vague to be on the books.
Judge Anthony Johnstone, writing for the full court, acknowledged the law, approved by Republican lawmakers amid claims of election fraud, makes it a Class 5 felony to anyone who “knowingly provides a mechanism for voting to another person who is registered in another state.” That carries a presumptive 18-month prison term.
