Arizona’s guidance for election workers violates Americans’ First Amendment right to free speech and may disenfranchise voters, a lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges.
Brought against Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, Gov. Katie Hobbs, and Attorney General Kris Mayes in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, the suit challenges provisions included in the latest iteration of the Election Procedures Manual (EPM), which provides guidance for election officials relating to mail ballots, voter registration, and other election-related matters. State law requires the manual to be issued by the secretary of state on Dec. 31 of every odd-numbered year and reviewed by Arizona’s governor and attorney general before finalization.
The lawsuit was filed by the America First Policy Institute, American Encore, and Arizona resident Karen Glennon.
Plaintiffs contend that the Fontes-devised EPM approved by Hobbs and Mayes in December 2023 includes two guidelines that violate the U.S. Constitution. The first is a “vote nullification provision,” which stipulates that “[i]f the official canvass of any county has not been received by [the] deadline, the Secretary of State must proceed with the state canvass without including the votes of the missing county.” In other words, all votes cast by electors in a county in which the Board of Supervisors declines to certify the election results will not be counted in the state’s final canvass.
Plaintiffs argue this provision “mandates the complete disenfranchisement of every voter in that county” and “does so even where the voters in that county themselves are entirely
