State of Arizona

Arizona Gubernatorial Election Contest (Borrelli)

Borrelli v. Hobbs

Lawsuit filed by Arizona state Sen. Sonny Borrelli (R) and Mohave County, Arizona voters against Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D), the Maricopa County recorder, members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and the Maricopa director of elections challenging the results of the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race. The plaintiffs allege that “[b]ecause of multiple systemic failures in the conduct of the election in Maricopa County, Arizona, including the County’s improper and unauthorized delegation of its responsibilities to opaque, unproven software programs that improperly but unavoidably influenced the judgment of poorly trained workers tasked with signature verification, in violation of Arizona statutory law, the voting strength of residents of Mohave County, Arizona, was diluted and their Constitutional rights were violated.” The plaintiffs specifically argue that a “disproportionate number” of Maricopa County’s mail-in ballots, including many “presumably” deposited in drop boxes, did not pass a “proper verification system” and therefore should not have been counted. The plaintiffs further contend that the allegedly “biased” and inaccurate “artificial intelligence software” used to verify signatures on mail-in ballots cast in Maricopa County violated Arizona law and the U.S. Constitution, ultimately resulting in the “disenfranchisement of Mohave electors who had properly cast their ballots in a county that followed state election law and verified each signature properly, by trained human beings.” The plaintiffs request that the court declare the Maricopa County defendants’ “impermissible and unlawful” “outsourcing” of the signature verification process to “opaque third-party computer software” in violation of the U.S. Constitution and Arizona law. They also ask the court to “[i]nvalidate and set aside the 2022 Maricopa County general election results for the race for governor, and/or and invalidate and set aside all Maricopa County mail-in ballots in the 2022 general election for governor.” On Dec. 16, an Arizona judge ruled from the bench to dismiss the election contest and the Arizona governor-elect as a defendant. On Jan. 10, 2023, the court dismissed the case.

Case Documents

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