PHOENIX β Arizona should not be forced to give voters a chance to "cure'' the fact that they forgot to sign the envelopes holding their ballots before dropping them in the mail, Attorney General Mark Brnovich contends.
Brnovich, a Republican, told U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Rayes he should reject a bid by the state and national Democratic parties to give people who didn't sign their ballot envelopes five business days after Election Day to come in and fix the problem.
Brnovich, in new legal filings, said Arizona is one of the easiest states for people to cast ballots. The reasons range from allowing people to register online to the fact that people can vote early without needing an excuse, he said.
And he called this lawsuit an attempt by Democrats "to invalidate or alter duly-enacted laws for their own electoral benefit,'' noting they want the change to take effect for this year's election.
The Democrats contend it's only fair, however.
In filing suit, they noted that state lawmakers last year agreed to require county election officials to give people five business days to "cure'' their ballots if it appears that the signature on the envelope does not match what is on file, even if that occurs after Election Day. But Arizona law does not offer a similar option for those who simply failed to sign the envelope, they said.
That means if they haven't signed the envelope by 7 p.m. on Election Day, their votes are not counted, even if they were registered and got their ballots in on time.
Brnovich said it's one thing to give someone whose signature does not match what's on file at county election offices some time to come in and fix the problem. County officials have said there are many reasons for this, including illness and age. "The voter is often blameless'' in such cases, Brnovich said.
"But for completely absent signatures, the disqualification will nearly always be the exclusive fault of the affected voters,'' he wrote.
The challengers are seeking an order from Rayes requiring counties at this year's November general election to give those who sent in their ballots without signatures extra time to fix them.
Brnovich contends the only real "harm'' the Democrats are alleging is that somehow the votes for their candidates would not be counted.
An attorney for the Democrats,Β Alexis Danneman, has said something similar: "It is inevitable that Democrats, or those who would vote for Democrats, will not have their vote counted as a result of defendants' failure to allow voters to cure missing signatures after Election Day." The result, she has written, is the party will be less likely to succeed in its "mission to help elect Democratic candidates to public office.''
Brnovich retorted that the "mission'' of the party isn't a reason the judge should order a change in state law.Β
Anyway, he said, there is nothing in the claim that more Democratic votes would be disqualified than those of Republicans.
Danneman, however, claimed a financial component, saying the party has had to spend extra money to educate voters to ensure their votes are counted.
"For example, the Arizona Democratic Party anticipates needing to focus additional educational resources on areas of Arizona with low English literacy rates,'' she said. "This is due to the heightened risk that voters in such areas will fail to understand mail ballot instructions, inadvertently mail the ballot without a signature, and be disenfranchised if their ballot is received with insufficient time to cure.''
Brnovich said the lawsuit, filed in June, should not force the judge to be rushed into a decision because challengers waited so long.
He also questioned the harm caused by the law on unsigned ballots, saying that just one-tenth of 1% percent of all ballots cast in 2018 were disqualified for the lack of signatures.
The lawsuit has drawn national interest, with even the Trump reelection campaign intervening in asking Rayes to toss the lawsuit. The judge has scheduled a hearing to hear arguments later this month.
