Lawyers representing the state and the Republican National Committee asked a federal appellate court Wednesday to reverse a lower court order blocking two provisions of a controversial election reform law the GOP-controlled General Assembly passed in 2021.

A U.S. District Court judge granted a preliminary injunction in 2023 to civil rights and voting rights groups challenging a provision in Senate Bill 202 that prohibited volunteers from providing food and water to voters waiting in long lines within 150 feet of a polling place. The judge also threw out a second provision requiring voters to include their birthdate on absentee ballot envelopes.

The legislature’s Republican majorities passed Senate Bill 202 in the aftermath of a Democratic surge in 2020 that saw Joe Biden become the fir

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