WASHINGTON — If a voter accidentally casts a ballot in the wrong precinct, should it be counted? Should early voters be able to give their sealed ballots to someone else to drop in the mail or deliver to a polling place?

In Arizona, the answer to both questions has been a resounding “no” — until this week.

On Monday, a federal appeals court ruled that those restrictions, in a state with some of the nation’s more stringent voting rules, should no longer stand. The result? In Arizona, which is seen as a battleground in the presidential race this fall, many voters will find their ballots considerably easier to cast and less likely to be excluded from election-night tallies.

In the past, Arizona voters who cast ballots in the wrong precinct had their votes thrown out. And since 2016, the state has outlawed a popular voting aid — letting campaign workers and other outsiders collect voters’ early ballots for delivery to polling places.

Democrats and voting rights advocates had argued that the rules made voting too hard, especially for minorities. But the Republican-controlled State Legislature, which had put the strict rules in place, said they kept elections free of fraud.