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In a show of finality, the Arizona Supreme Court has denied the lawsuit filed by the ACLU which would have extended the period allowed for correcting ballot inconsistencies up to another four days.
A lawyer with the Center for American Liberty filed papers yesterday opposing the ACLU’s effort to extend the ballot “curing” process beyond Sunday’s 5PM deadline.
BREAKING.
Lawyer @pnjaban has filed “papers in the Arizona Supreme Court opposing the ACLU’s effort to extend ballot curing past the statutory 5 pm deadline today.”
She is filing on behalf of the RNC and Republican Party. The defendants in the case are Maricopa County… pic.twitter.com/MOdXhQIErw
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) November 10, 2024
Just filed our papers in the Arizona Supreme Court opposing the ACLU’s effort to extend ballot curing past the statutory 5 pm deadline today. Now we wait for the high court to rule … pic.twitter.com/i1Znbuc2yL
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 10, 2024
The AZ Supreme Court issued its ruling yesterday evening, siding with the Republicans and denying the attempt spearheaded by the ACLU to extend the deadline, and thereby disallowing a scenario that could have ultimately called the vote integrity into greater question than has already occurred.
According to a story in Newsweek, multiple organizations sought to extend the “curing” time for possible ballot errors to be fixed by filing a petition with the Arizona Supreme Court on Saturday.
The Arizona Supreme Court has declined to extend the deadline for voters to correct issues with their mail-in ballots as the Senate race between Kari Lake and Ruben Gallego goes down to the wire.
So far, no Senate winner has emerged in Arizona and, as of Sunday morning, Democrat Ruben Gallego was narrowly ahead of Lake, according to projections from The Associated Press, with Gallego leading with 49.7 percent of the vote compared with Lake’s 48.2 percent.
At the time of writing, around 92 percent of the vote had been counted.
On Sunday, the court ruled that election officials in eight of the state’s 15 counties had adequately informed voters of signature discrepancies and given them the opportunity to resolve the issue.
Voter rights organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Campaign Legal Center, had sought an emergency court order to extend the deadline, arguing that delays in vote counting and notification left many voters at risk of having their ballots invalidated.
In a petition filed on Saturday, they called for an extension of up to four days, citing concerns over the verification process for the more than 250,000 mail-in ballots that had yet to be reviewed as of Friday evening.
Arizona law requires that voters who submit mail-in ballots be notified of issues, such as a signature mismatch, and be given a “reasonable” opportunity to correct the problem through a process called “curing.”
Justice Bill Montgomery, who served as duty judge for the seven-member court, said: “The Court has no information to establish in fact that any such individuals did not have the benefit of ‘reasonable efforts’ to cure their ballots.”
He also pointed out that none of the responding counties requested an extension of time.
ACLU’s Request Denied in Arizona
Ballot curing is officially over and we await for counties to FINALLY finish counting ballots.
— Tyler Bowyer (@tylerbowyer) November 11, 2024
ACLU lost its hail mary last minute lawsuit to extend the cure period for mail ballots lacking signature matches.
Ballot curing is now over in Arizona. Let’s finish the tabulation and wrap this up. pic.twitter.com/H4x8SpVbIi
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 11, 2024
Ironically, the decision against the ACLU’s request came down to a lack of evidence! A total of zero counties that the ACLU’s initial request identified as having a need for the extension reported that they actually needed that extension, as the ACLU claimed.
According to a report in the Washington Examiner, the AZ House Speaker, AZ Senate President, the RNC, and even the Navajo Nation sided briefs alongside of the one filled by the Center for American Liberty.
None of the responding counties asked the court for an extension and instead claimed they all made reasonable efforts to contact voters with problem ballots. Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma, Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen, the Republican National Committee, and the Navajo Nation submitted amicus briefs against the petition, which the court sided with.
“Thus, the Court is not presented with evidence that any voters will be prevented from curing a defective ballot by today’s 5:00 p.m. deadline,” the court’s order read. “In short, there is no evidence of disenfranchisement before the Court.”
As of now there is nothing left to do but count the existing ballots according to existing procedure, and let the chips fall where they may! There are still concerns that the full week taken to count those ballots could have allowed shenanigans behind the scenes — but at this point, the possibility of prolonging the deadline further has been given a firm “No” by the AZ Supreme Court.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport.