Judge: Gilbert council candidate can stay on ballot, signatures OK in election fraud claim

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge on Friday dismissed the election challenge against Gilbert council candidate Noah Mundt on procedural grounds, ruling that an amended complaint alleging signature fraud was filed too late.

Mundt will remain on the ballot to compete for one of the two open seats on Gilbert Town Council.

The judge ruled that the timeline was too tight to hear the case and still comply with state law.

Mundt, in a statement to The Arizona Republic, wrote: "I'm relieved that the challenge to my candidacy was dismissed today. This legal action unjustly targeted a high school student involved in our signature collection, exploiting them in an attempt to remove me from the ballot."

Michael Webb, a Gilbert resident and a former committee precinct member of the Republican Party's Legislative District 14, initially filed the complaint on April 15 challenging 503 signatures on Mundt’s nomination paperwork.

The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office found only 278 signatures were invalid, leaving Mundt with 1,024 valid signatures. He only needed 1,000 to qualify for the July 30 ballot.

Webb amended his complaint on Monday. He then alleged an 18-year-old paid to gather signatures forged "a substantial number" of them on the nomination sheets he turned in. Webb asked the court to invalidate all the paperwork, including all 65 signatures gathered by the teenager.

Without those signatures, Mundt would have been shy of the threshold to qualify for the ballot.

Webb enlisted two well-known attorneys among Arizona's election deniers to represent him in the challenges: Tim LaSota and Jennifer Wright.

LaSota was also involved in various other city election challenges across the Valley, including Glendale and Mesa and represents former gubernatorial and now U.S. Senate Candidate Kari Lake in a defamation lawsuit against her. Wright helped lead the election integrity office under Attorney General Mark Brnovich, casting doubts on Maricopa County elections procedures in 2022.

Mundt’s attorney Brett Johnson filed a motion to dismiss the challenge arguing that “the brand-new claim” was outside of the 10-day timeframe outlined in state law and that it prevented them from being able to prepare a rebuttal.

State law requires that election challenges be filed within 10 days of a candidate submitting nomination paperwork with a city clerk’s office.

Johnson argued in court that allowing the trial on the amended complaint would “bring a whole new regime” and process for election challenges.

LaSota responded in court arguing that the timing was merely an inconvenience, not an impediment, for Mundt’s defense.

“They don’t want to defend this claim,” he argued to Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah.

LaSota said the amended complaint should be heard before the court because the 18-year-old signature gatherer “should not be entitled to the presumption of validity.” His argument was that if some signatures were forged, the court should not assume the rest were valid.

If Hannah had allowed the hearing to move forward, LaSota's plan was to petition the court to follow a legal precedent set in a 2020 case. That challenge resulted in the principle that all the signatures collected by one circulator should be thrown out because she admitted to forging more than 100 signatures.

In Mudnt's case Friday, Hannah was faced with three options:

• Dismiss the case on procedural grounds, based on deadlines established by state law for election challenges.

• Invalidate all 20 signatures on two sheets where the duplicate signatures were found.

• Follow the 2020 case decision and invalidate all 65 signatures gathered by the teenager.

The third option was the only one that could have knocked Mundt off the ballot. It would have left him 20 signatures shy of the required 1,000.

In the end, Hannah agreed with Mundt’s lawyers to dismiss the case and no evidence nor testimony was heard in court Friday.

Allowing the amended complaint to move forward “compromises the process” and the county’s ability to print timely ballots, he found. He reasoned that the timeline compromised Mundt's right to defend the case.

Hannah did not agree that duplicated signatures invalidated all the other ones submitted by the teenager, noting “The whole thing is not spoiled.”

An option to appeal Hannah’s decision remains open. LaSota did not indicate to the Republic if Webb plans to appeal the decision to the Arizona Supreme Court.

LaSota told the Republic he disagreed with the judge’s decision questioning the teenager’s credibility.

“If he’s willing to do this, how do you know he didn’t every tenth signature write something down? Why do you trust someone who lies,” LaSota said. “The judge is saying we need to trust someone who lied.”

Webb filed two other challenges against mayoral candidate Natalie DiBernardo and council candidate Kenny Buckland which he later filed notices of dismissal.

He was also part of former mayoral candidate Shane Krauser's election committee and donated $200 to his campaign, according to finance reports. Krauser dropped out of the mayoral race Wednesday amid raising scrutiny over the election challenges, connections with the "Gilbert Goons" and a history of financial fraud.

Reporter Maritza Dominguez covers Mesa, Gilbert and Queen Creek and can be reached at maritza.dominguez@arizonarepublic.com or 480-271-0646. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @maritzacdom.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Judge dismisses Gilbert election challenge alleging signature fraud