Guidance issued by Arizona’s Democrat election chief could disenfranchise “potentially millions of Arizona voters,” a federal court ruled Friday.
Writing on behalf of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, Judge Michael Liburdi placed a preliminary injunction on a provision guiding election certification that was included in the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPM) by Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. In Arizona, the EPM provides rules to election officials relating to mail ballots, voter registration, and other election-related matters.
“Given the widespread controversy surrounding elections, one would hope the last people responsible for disenfranchising voters and suppressing speech would be the very election officials tasked with ensuring fair and accurate elections,” Liburdi wrote. “But, according to Plaintiffs, that is precisely the case here.”
The lawsuit was filed by the America First Policy Institute, American Encore, and an Arizona resident against Fontes and Democrat Attorney General Kris Mayes.
The canvass provision promulgated by Fontes and subsequently approved by Mayes and Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs along with the rest of the EPM stipulates that if a county does not certify and submit its election results for final canvassing by the state-mandated deadline, then the secretary of state “must proceed with the state canvass without including the votes of the missing county.” In other words, electors whose county does not certify the results by the deadline will not have their votes counted during Fontes’ canvassing of the state’s election results.
The provision appears to have been aimed at preventing another certification dispute
