Arizona is still having election issues carried over from the 2020 elections. During Arizona’s previous two elections, the state’s secretary of state used illegal signature-verification methods, a state court ruled. The Superior Court for the County of Yavapai ruled that the Secretary violated the law by permitting signature verification with documents not related to registration.
According to Judge John Napper, the Arizona election law is unambiguous. The legislature intended for the recorder to verify that the signature on the envelope matches the signature on the registration documents used by the putative voter. Arizona Secretary of State violated the law by failing to match ballot signatures with voter registration documents.
As part of its mission to defend state election laws, Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE) sued the Arizona Secretary of State’s office in March, challenging its authority to ignore the state’s signature verification statute.
A status conference has been scheduled for Sept. 19 by Judge Napper for counsel for all parties.
Arizona’s 2022 elections were marred by accusations of voter fraud and mismanagement by then Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who was also running for governor. Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor, claimed that election officials verified many voter signatures without observers. Hobbs defeated Lake by less than 20,000 votes. Republican Abraham Hamadeh defeated his Democrat opponent by only 280 votes in the Arizona Attorney General race.
