Right-Wing Group Files Lawsuit in Arizona

WASHINGTON, D.C. On behalf of two Arizona voters, the Public Interest Legal Foundation, a right-wing nonprofit, sued the Maricopa County recorder and Board of Supervisors in the Arizona Superior Court, claiming that the use of Sharpie permanent markers at some polling sites “deprived” voters of their right to have their ballots counted.  The lawsuit seeks to: 1) identify ballots impacted by the Sharpie markers and allow them to be corrected; 2) allow members of the public who were given Sharpies to be present in person to observe the counting of ballots and 3) obtain a declaration by the Maricopa County recorder and Board of Supervisors saying that their actions had “deprived voters of their right to have their votes read with perfect accuracy by an automatic system”

Today, the Arizona Democratic Party filed a motion to intervene in the case, calling the lawsuit “a wolf dressed up in sheep’s clothing.” In its motion to intervene, the Arizona Democratic Party called out the blatant attempt by the Public Interest Legal Foundation “to throw the processing of ballots in Arizona’s largest county into disarray at the eleventh hour.”

Read the complaint here.

Learn more about the case here.