Fontes has dismissed concerns about Arizona's election administration, but a new lawsuit alleges widespread failures.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes was in Washington, D.C., this week to smear those advocating for election integrity as election “deniers.” The Strong Community Foundation, a local Arizona nonprofit civic organization, and Eric Labris, a Maricopa County resident and member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, have filed a lawsuit against Maricopa County elections officials.
“We are fully aware of the myriad deficiencies in the way our elections were administered, but we have consistently failed to take effective steps to correct them,” county officials said in a statement. lawsuit claim. “Defendants' election administration in Maricopa County was sloppy, sloppy, and error-prone.
Submitter america first legala law firm founded by former Trump administration officials, The lawsuit names everyone, including Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates and County Recorder Stephen Richer.
it is, litany of Alleged violations of election laws in recent major election cycles. The complaint seeks an injunction and a writ of mandamus ordering the county to properly comply with election laws to prevent the 2024 election from being “marred by the same errors and mismanagement as the 2020 and 2022 elections.” There is.
At the panel discussion Announced by the Election Center on Tuesday, Fontes downplayed concerns about election integrity to election officials and a media audience. “Part of what happens there is [in the 2024 election] This is something we see in every cycle, with occasional human error as well. Unfortunately, bad actors with malicious intent are currently trying to blow these things out of proportion and make it look like the sky is falling. Because someone moved the box from point A to point B. ”
Beef is about more than just shuffling boxes, according to the complaint. The complaint asks a judge to order Maricopa County to “document its retention process” for ballots. This is a common legal requirement when ballots are moved out of public view.
Maricopa County Election Officials Admitted Court testimony last May said the ballots were delivered to a private third-party provider to process the ballots without a chain of custody form. This was a key issue in the 2022 gubernatorial race between Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Katie Hobbs, who won. about 17,000 votes.
The complaint alleges that Maricopa County election officials “unlawfully failed to properly store and maintain” ballots, resulting in “a difference of more than 25,000 votes, which is the largest difference in the 2022 statewide election, including the gubernatorial race.” “This was a margin of victory greater than the margin of victory in many elections.” ”
In remarks at an election center event on Tuesday, Fontes dismissed calls from election integrity activists to fix problems in Arizona's election administration. He told the audience that 2024 will focus on “real jobs” by “people who actually drive trucks.” [with voters’ ballots], moving things around the warehouse and assisting constituents. For me, that's where the focus will be in 2024. ”
But the lawsuit says a lot of work needs to be done. The lawsuit alleges that in 2022, ballots will be Not properly reviewed Vote centers were plagued by issues with on-demand ballot printers. “These printer failures included printing 19-inch ballot images on 20-inch paper that were no longer readable by tabulation machines,” the lawsuit alleges. “Furthermore, the printers were incorrectly configured to print ballots using the ink-saving ‘eco’ feature, resulting in speckled and faded printouts that made the ballots unreadable by tabulation machines. ”
On Tuesday, I asked Fontes why some machines reportedly broke down on Election Day 2022, and why there were apparent breakdowns. A lawsuit filed by 2022 gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake says tabulators at about 60% of Maricopa polling places rejected votes on Election Day. Fontes replied, “The root of your question is election denialism,'' and claimed that “the tabulation machines were so sensitive and secure that they could not have detected the printing error.'' [would be] It is so small that it cannot be seen with the human eye. ”
“We had a very secure system,” he added, adding, “If the counting machine at a polling place couldn't count, the standard procedure is that there's an alternative place to put the machine.” '' he claimed.
The plaintiffs also take issue with a large voting center in Maricopa County, which America First Legal says is not only “poorly managed” but also “poorly run on Election Day.” It is an “unreasonable alternative to precinct voting” and “is set up in a racially discriminatory manner and has a disparate impact on the county's white and Native American residents, who are more likely to vote in person.”
In addition to maintaining documentation of the archiving process by which ballots are transferred, the filing also requires election officials to “in order to racially balance the number of long-distance voters on election day. and 2022 general election demographic data.'' That's because the “vast majority” of these “Election Day voters whose residence is more than three miles from a polling place” “lived in majority-white or Native American census tracts.”
The lawsuit alleges:
…During the 2022 election, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of voters showed up to their polling places and were told they were not registered to vote in Maricopa County, even though they had not moved, and were intentionally It did not request cancellation of registration. If you have been transferred or transferred, you have not consented to the cancellation of your registration, and you were not informed of the cancellation of your registration.
as a result, The plaintiffs go on to claim that they had to cast provisional ballots, but that Maricopa County election officials “never counted” the ballots. “Due to Defendants’ unlawful cancellations, the number of voters disenfranchised during the 2022 general election exceeded the margin of victory in some races,” the filing states. There is.
When I asked him on Tuesday about issues with the 2022 election, Fontes said he would act “if we see evidence of fraud or evidence of problems,” but insisted there was “no evidence.”
But Fontes has certainly seen a long list of complaints, including: lawsuit A few days ago, a lawsuit was filed against him by Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen and state House Speaker Ben Thoma.they claim The state's election procedure manual is “in conflict with election law.” The Republican National Committee similarly filed a lawsuit Friday over the manual.
The lawsuit by America First Legal alleges that instead of addressing well-documented failures to comply with laws regarding storage processes and proper verification of signatures on absentee ballots, Maricopa County election officials instead “stubbornly… “I stood my ground,” he said. Rather than righting past wrongs, they seek to fight, silence, and shame those who question their misgovernment. ”
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This article Published by federalist Reprinted with permission.
Image credit: Shutterstock
