Ahead of 2024’s first statewide race, second GOP group sues over AZ’s election procedures

The Republican National Committee joined with the state and Yavapai County GOP in a lawsuit filed Friday to stop new voting rules they say will allow election fraud.

The new suit against Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is the second his office is facing by Republicans complaining about the Elections Procedures Manual issued in December. The manual provides detailed guidance for county officials on how to run elections.

State Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma sued Fontes on Jan. 31 over five provisions in the manual they say undermine previous Republican "voter confidence measures."

The latest lawsuit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, adds nine other complaints.

"The new EPM weakens safeguards against non-citizen voting during a time of unprecedented illegal immigration on Arizona’s southern border, unlawfully limits the ability to challenge early ballots, and violates numerous provisions of Arizona law meant to protect election integrity," RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who's stepping down from her position this month, said in a statement about the lawsuit.

A statement by Gina Swoboda, the new chair of the Republican Party of Arizona who previously worked in the Secretary of State’s Office, accuses Fontes of releasing the manual "at the last second during the holidays" to avoid scrutiny.

"This is a blatant attempt to rewrite election law and hollow out basic safeguards that are designed to preserve election integrity in our state’s elections," she said.

Fontes is reviewing the lawsuit, according to spokesman Aaron Thacker. The office declined other comment for now. The office put out a statement after the Jan. 31 lawsuit filing saying Fontes was "prepared to defend the EPM that was created to provide uniformity and clarity for elections officials, so they can administer free and fair elections for the people of Arizona."

Election integrity is a dominant concern of Republicans in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election lost by former President Donald Trump. Petersen and Toma intervened last year in a 2022 law signed by former Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey that enhanced proof-of-citizenship requirements for voters.

One of the provisions of the new lawsuit demands the new elections manual adhere to that law, though a federal judge is set to rule on a separate, ongoing lawsuit over the same law filed by civil rights groups.

In the federal lawsuit, lawyers for Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes have filed briefs agreeing with civil rights groups that the state would have to accept and use federal voter registration forms for people voting in presidential and other federal elections. But the Republican lawsuit demands the elections manual instruct county officials to adhere to the 2022 law, denying federal-only voters the right to vote or use mailed ballots when the voter hasn't shown proof of citizenship.

The lawsuit also challenges rules including excusing county recorders from complying with a state law to check "alternative databases" for evidence of noncitizens in voter rolls and barring challenges to early ballots before they are put in a ballot box. A provision demanding county recorders cancel the registration of people who indicate on jury forms they are not Arizona residents also is mentioned in the January lawsuit by legislative leaders.

Besides specific procedural complaints, the Republican plaintiffs accuse Fontes of creating an "artificially short period for public comment" and ignoring an August warning by the GOP about the plan in a draft of the manual.

"The secretary skipped almost every step in the notice-and-comment rulemaking process under the" state's Administrative Procedure Act, the lawsuit claims.

The three Republican party groups seek a ruling that the new manual is invalid and an injunction that prohibits Fontes from enforcing it unless he "complies with the rulemaking process" in state law.

The presidential preference election is set for March 19 in Arizona. Lawmakers approved a new law on Thursday that moves the primary election date up to July 30 and provides other measures intended to ensure that stricter recount procedures don't interfere with elections.

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Reach the reporter at rstern@arizonarepublic.com or 480-276-3237. Follow him on X @raystern.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: RNC, state GOP sue Fontes over Arizona’s election procedures