Arizona Free Enterprise Club v. Fontes
Lawsuit against the Arizona Secretary of State brought by RITE, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, and an individual voter, challenging the Secretary of State’s illegal signature matching procedures. RITE argues that county recorders are erroneously permitted to compare signatures on early mail-in ballot envelopes with signatures outside the voter’s registration record, in contravention of state law. Arizona law plainly stipulates that early ballot affidavit signatures must be validated by reference to the registration record.
RITE seeks to prevent the secretary from “enforcing or implementing any [practice] that instructs county recorders to validate early ballot affidavit signatures by reference to documents—including without limitation polling place signature rosters and historical early ballot affidavits—that is not a ‘registration record.’” The Secretary of State’s unreasonable interpretation of a “registration record” improperly expands the pool of signatures to which an early ballot affidavit signature may be compared, thus compounding the risk of a false positive.
On March 13, 2023, activist attorney Marc Elias moved to intervene in the case on behalf of Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans. On March 21, Mi Familia Vota moved to intervene as well. On April 21, the court granted intervention to both parties. On April 20, the Secretary of State moved to dismiss the case. On May 22, AARA also moved to dismiss.