Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
ARIZONA PUBLIC INTEGRITY ALLIANCE, v. ADRIAN FONTES, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS MARICOPA COUNTY RECORDER;
Today we address the proper overvote instruction that must be included with mail-in ballots. An overvote occurs when a person votes for more candidates than permitted for a specific election. Before the 2020 election cycle, the Maricopa County Recorder, in compliance with the Secretary of State’s Elections Procedures Manual, included an instruction (the “Overvote Instruction”) advising mail-in voters that overvotes would not be counted, and in the event of an overvote, to contact the Recorder’s Office and request a new ballot.
We hold that the Recorder acted unlawfully by including the New Instruction with mail-in ballots. The Recorder does not have the constitutional or statutory authority to promulgate mail-in ballot instructions, nor does he have the authority to create voter guidelines for correcting overvotes to ensure that they will be counted. Rather, with respect to overvotes, the Recorder has a non-discretionary duty to provide the Overvote Instruction authorized by the Arizona Secretary of State, 2019 Elections Procedures Manual (“2019 EPM”).
(“[T]he right to vote is the right to participate in an electoral process that is necessarily structured to maintain the integrity of the democratic system.”). Thus, public officials should, by their words and actions, seek to preserve and protect those laws
But when public officials, in the middle of an election, change the law based on their own perceptions of what they think it should be, they undermine public confidence in our democratic system and destroy the integrity of the electoral process.
The Recorder, however, is not empowered to promulgate rules regarding instructions for early voting, nor does he have the authority to change or supplant the EPM’s prescribed instructions.
Despite his lack of authority to prescribe voting instructions, the Recorder asserts that the law requires him to include the New Instruction with mail-in ballots. We disagree.
Under Arizona law, an overvote is invalid and is not counted.
We reverse the trial court and grant relief. The County is enjoined from including the New Instruction with mail-in ballots for the November 3, 2020 General Election.
Enjoin is the verb form of injunction. A court enjoins something when it issues an injunction against it.
That's not a real problem now with the new border wall.In 2016, Trump claimed 3 million illegal aliens voted for Hillary
With all his claims of voter fraud this year, why isn’t he mentioning illegal aliens?
13 million illegal aliens are already hereThat's not a real problem now with the new border wall.In 2016, Trump claimed 3 million illegal aliens voted for Hillary
With all his claims of voter fraud this year, why isn’t he mentioning illegal aliens?
