November 11th 2024.
The Arizona Supreme Court faced a tough decision on Sunday regarding the deadline for voters to fix any issues with their mail-in ballots. This came after several voter rights groups expressed concern about delays in vote counting and notification for voters with signature discrepancies.
The court ultimately decided not to extend the deadline, stating that the majority of the state's counties had properly notified and given voters a chance to resolve any issues with their ballots. The state law requires that mail-in voters be notified of any problems, such as a mismatched signature, and be given a reasonable opportunity to fix it. Justice Bill Montgomery, who was serving as the duty judge for the court, noted that none of the responding counties had requested an extension of the deadline.
The court's decision was based on the fact that there was no evidence of disenfranchisement among voters. The order stated that there was no indication that any individuals had not been given the chance to correct their ballots. This was in response to a petition from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Campaign Legal Center, who had named registrars, including Stephen Richer in Maricopa County, in their request for an emergency court order to extend the original deadline.
According to the groups, as of Friday evening, over 250,000 mail-in ballots had not been verified by signature, with the majority of those being in Maricopa County. They argued that this could potentially disenfranchise tens of thousands of Arizona voters. However, Montgomery, a Republican appointed to the court by former Governor Doug Ducey in 2019, noted that the eight responding counties, including Maricopa, had made efforts to contact affected voters through various means such as phone calls, emails, texts, and mail.
Despite this, the Navajo Nation informed the court that there were more than 182 tribe members in Apache County who still needed to cure their ballots on Saturday. Additionally, Maricopa County reported early Sunday that there were still around 202,000 ballots left to be counted. The Arizona Secretary of State also reported that over 3 million ballots had been cast in the election.
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