Voters who go to the wrong polling place on Election Day will have to cast provisional ballots that won’t be counted.
Democrats tried to change that policy ahead of Nov. 8, but the 9 th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined their bid Friday afternoon.
A suit filed by the Arizona Democratic Party, the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton campaign and others argued Arizona’s policy of tossing provisional ballots cast at the wrong polling place on Election Day unfairly disenfranchises voters. They argued voters who show up in the wrong precinct should be allowed to vote for the races on the ballot that their place of residence allows them to vote on.
An 11-judge panel of the 9 th Circuit agreed to review the case Friday morning after a three-judge appeals court panel and a district court denied Democrats’ motion.
But on Friday afternoon in a 7-4 vote, the judges declined to stop the Arizona policy ahead of the election.
Maricopa County poll workers have been trained to instruct voters who show up at the wrong polling place to go to their correct location for their vote to count.
The court will hear oral arguments and consider the policy in January.