An Arizona judge upheld an injunction on Wednesday prohibiting enforcement of provisions in the state’s election guidance that her court found “restricted free speech.”
Writing for the Maricopa County Superior Court of Arizona, Judge Jennifer Ryan-Touhill denied a request by Democrat Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to place a stay pending appeal on the court’s recent injunction barring election officials from implementing parts of the 2023 Election Procedures Manual (EPM). In Arizona, the EPM is crafted by the secretary of state and provides guidance to election officials relating to mail ballots, voter registration, and other election-related matters.
In her initial ruling, Ryan-Touhill determined the provisions governing Arizonans’ conduct at polling locations went “too far” by attempting to police the behavior of both election officials and the public. She ruled that they constitute “speech restrictions in violation of our Arizona Constitution,” and noted that the EPM “misstates or modifies [state] statutes, and fails to identify any distinction between guidance and legal mandates.”
The court deemed the aforementioned rules “unenforceable,” prompting Fontes’ office to pledge to appeal the decision. Fontes filed a motion on Aug. 14 asking the court to place a stay on its decision while litigation on the matter continued.
Rejecting the motion, Ryan-Touhill noted Wednesday that while the court “understands Defendants’ position that the disputed section is intended to be ‘guidance’ for election officials,” it “simply disagreed with Defendants’ position and found the disputed section was not guidance, but, instead, an overreach by the Secretary of State that restricted
