The lawsuit contends the change is vague and "chills core First Amendment activity" of observers who report back to political parties or other organizations about actions taken by canvassing boards.

"Political parties, campaigns and other organizations routinely send people — often volunteers — to county canvassing boards to observe the canvassing of elections," the lawsuit said. "These volunteers have traditionally reported back to their volunteer groups engaged in voter protection or election oversight, political parties, campaigns or organizations. These reports are integral to the prevention of wrongful voter disenfranchisement and to ensure that elections are run freely, fairly and in accordance with law."

As an example, the lawsuit said, "a campaign or party may have a legitimate interest in keeping track of the number of times a canvassing board determines that a ballot bearing some marking near the name of its candidate does or does not constitute a valid vote for that candidate or that candidate's opponents. Likewise, a campaign or party may have a legitimate interest in monitoring whether canvassing boards' applications of the voter intent standards are being applied in a fair and uniform manner, both within a single county and across different counties."

But Williams, who was appointed to the federal bench by former Democratic President Barack Obama, cited assurances from the Division of Elections advisory opinion that the law would not restrict the release of publicly available information from canvassing board meetings.

"Plaintiffs' broader construction of the statute would … prohibit attendees at canvassing board meetings open to the public from releasing information obtained during the meeting, a particularly untenable result," she wrote in the 14-page decision. "Defendants' narrower construction — that the statute shields a discrete 'category of sensitive electoral information directly bearing on election results from being released to the public by a narrow subset of individuals who have special authorization to obtain such information' — is more reasonable and readily apparent."