TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Oct 20, 2020

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday declined to reinstate a law requiring first-time voters to cast a ballot in-person or show ID at the local election office before voting absentee, the Associated Press reports. The 3-0 decision maintains a lower court’s order last month. In Monday’s opinion, Judge Julia Smith Gibbons said “disrupting the new rules at this point poses significant risk of harm to the public interest in orderly elections.” Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said the ruling, coupled with expanded eligibility, means “thousands of first-time voters should not be forced to risk their health in order to vote.”