Arizona court rules against state’s ‘illegal signature matching process’, ensuring election integrity.
The Fight for Election Integrity: Arizona Court Rules Against Unlawful Signature Matching Process
The public interest group Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE) is celebrating a significant victory for election integrity following a recent court ruling in Arizona.
In March, RITE filed a lawsuit against Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, arguing that his office’s Elections Procedures Manual violated the law regarding the mail-in ballot signature verification process.
The group claimed that Fontes instructed county recorders to use a broader range of comparison signatures, which resulted in the counting of ballots with signatures that did not match anything in the voter’s registration record. RITE argued that this was a clear violation of state law.
In a Friday ruling, Yavapai County Superior Court Judge John Napper rejected a motion to dismiss the case filed by Fontes and the group Mi Familia Vota. The court agreed with RITE’s conclusion that the law requires the recorder to review the voter’s registration card and not other documents with the voter’s signature.
Derek Lyons, president and CEO of RITE, expressed his satisfaction with the court’s ruling, stating, “RITE will build on this victory to continue to fight in court for elections that are administered according to democratically enacted laws, not illegal partisan commands.”
Kari Lake, the 2022 Republican nominee for governor, is also involved in a lawsuit against Fontes and Maricopa County officials regarding the signature verification process used in November’s election. An expert witness for Lake testified that approximately 70,000 mail-in ballots were reviewed for signature matches in less than two seconds, raising concerns about the accuracy of the process.
The statute at issue specifies that election officials should compare the signatures on the ballot envelope with the signature on the elector’s registration record. If there is a mismatch, the county is required to reach out to the voter and confirm their identity.
While a Maricopa County judge ruled against Lake, stating that the law does not specify a time limit for signature verification, Lake has appealed the case to the Arizona Court of Appeals.
This ruling is a significant step towards securing elections that Arizonans can trust and ensuring that the state’s election processes comply with the law.
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