A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Thursday upheld the dismissal of a free-speech challenge to a Tennessee law that makes it a felony for anyone other than an election officials to hand out absentee-ballot applications.

Judges Eric Murphy and David McKeague, in the majority, rejected arguments by several groups that the law violated the First Amendment by limiting their political speech and advocacy toward voters. The groups had said the decades-old ban on distribution by non-election officials is no longer necessary now that the forms are available online.