A federal judge has ordered Maricopa County to redo elections for two seats on the Phoenix Union High School District Board of Supervisors after the county printed incorrect instructions on some ballots.

The federal consent decree requires voters in the Phoenix coalition to cast only one vote in the races for the two vacant governing board seats. The ordinance was the result of a 1990 lawsuit alleging that the previous election process in the district diluted minority votes.

In October, Maricopa County officials informed a court that they had incorrectly printed ballots instructing Phoenix Coalition voters to choose up to two candidates, which would be a violation of the statute.

“By the time Maricopa County realized the error, voters on the active early voting list had already received their ballots and started voting,” according to court documents.

Maricopa County asked a federal court for guidance on how to remedy the situation.

Judge G. Murray Snow initially allowed the election to proceed, but then banned campaign activity and effectively blocked election officials from certifying those votes.

The election was won by Francisco Pastor-Rivera and Aaron Marquez, but Snow on Dec. 12 ordered the county to reconvene the election in a special mail-in election on March 11. I put it out.

Although the majority of voters who voted in the race complied with the consent statute, “at least 44,605 ​​voters voted in violation of the statute by selecting two candidates on their ballots,” according to the order.

Snow said Marquez defeated third-place Debbie Cross by less than 2,000 votes, which could have influenced the outcome of the election.

“This error simply makes it impossible to declare with confidence who the winner of a lawfully conducted election was or that the error was not material,” he said. I wrote it.

The judge acknowledged that changing the election from the presidential year to a special election in 2025 would likely reduce voter participation, but found that the terms of the consent decree required a new election. .

“But as recent general election results have shown, even if more voters voted in a fatally flawed election, at least in this case, who would have voted if the election had been held legally? It does not help determine whether the election was won,” Snow wrote.