The Arizona Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a Republican Party request to deem the state’s early voting system as unconstitutional. The court ruled that the case did not meet the limited criteria for a lawsuit filed directly to the state’s high court but said the Republican Party could take its case to the Superior Court. The lawsuit (pdf), which was filed in February, asserted that mail-in voting and other forms of early voting are invalid because the Arizona Constitution specifically directs voters to cast their ballots in person. Arizona’s early voting system was adopted in 1991 and has expanded since then. “In-person voting at the polls on a fixed date is the only constitutionally permissible manner of voting,” the lawsuit said. “Although litigants have challenged various mail-in voting statutes on other grounds, the statutory scheme itself has never been directly challenged on state constitutional grounds or directly authorized …