America First Legal (AFL) on Wednesday announced a new “landmark lawsuit” in Arizona against Maricopa County, its board of supervisors, and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer alleging the county has violated various state election laws since 2020.
AFL’s James Rogers said in a statement that “Maricopa County’s errors, lapses, and mistakes in administering elections have seriously eroded” the “trust that elections are free and fair,” which he noted underpins the “legitimacy of our government.”
“This lawsuit seeks to hold Maricopa County accountable for its failures and to restore Arizonans’ trust in their elections,” Rogers stated.
All five Maricopa County Board of Supervisors members are named in the lawsuit, including Jack Sellers, Thomas Galvin, Bill Gates, Clint Hickman, and Steve Gallardo.
The group alleges Maricopa County “refuses to maintain the mandatory chain of custody for ballots,” which in 2022 “led to a discrepancy of over 25,000 votes,” which AFL notes exceeds the number of votes that constitute Governor Katie Hobbs’ margin of victory in that election.
Additionally, AFL alleges that Maricopa County “ignores mandatory reconciliation procedures to track each ballot printed or issued to a voter,” uses an artificial intelligence (AI) process to verify signatures in violation of state law that requires signatures be examined by humans, and “have been wrongly canceling the voter registrations of hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Maricopa County residents,” requiring many of them to “cast provisional ballots, which the Defendants never counted.”
The lawsuit also alleges that Maricopa County arranged its “irrational” Election Day voting centers “in a racially discriminatory way, having a disparate impact on the County’s White and Native American citizens who are more likely to vote in person.”
AFL also argues Maricopa County’s voting centers “are poorly run,” citing the high-profile Election Day technical challenges experienced at the majority of the county’s voting locations in 2022.
The group also claims Maricopa County has failed to follow Arizona laws dictating ballot curing procedures and forbidding ballot drop boxes from being placed outside the direct view of at least two election officials who are meant to monitor them at all times, which AFL alleges means Maricopa County is “facilitating illegal ballot harvesting.”
Richer is embroiled in a lawsuit against Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake, claiming Lake falsely stated he intentionally sabotaged the 2022 election.
The Maricopa County Recorder was also scrutinized recently over a taxpayer-funded ad campaign about voting that prominently features him.
More recently, attorney Jennifer Wright, who is involved with the AFL lawsuit against Maricopa County, told The Arizona Sun Times that Richer could be violating the spirit of Arizona’s “mini-HATCH Act” by “using taxpayer resources” to create promotional campaign materials using his likeness.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
