Lawsuit targets Arizona's way of verifying early ballot signatures

Two groups, including a Virginia organization founded by conservative Republicans, have filed suit to overturn the process now used by Arizona counties to verify signatures on early ballot envelopes.

The lawsuit filed in Yavapai County Superior Court said state law requires election officials to match the signatures on the envelopes only with each voter’s registration record. But attorney Kory Langhofer, representing the challengers, said counties are following the instructions in a manual prepared by the Secretary of State’s Office that permits comparison with other signatures the county may have.

The problem is that manual directly conflicts with state law, Langhofer said.

He said it creates a situation where there could be multiple signatures on file for any given voter. That makes it more likely someone else could submit a ballot in that voter’s name and have it declared valid and counted, he said, though the lawsuit has no examples of early ballots that were improperly counted.

Failed Republican gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake has unsuccessfully raised the same objections about signature verification on early ballots as she tried to convince courts to throw out the results of the election she lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs. A trial judge ruled she raised the claim too late, saying she should have known about the conflict between the Election Procedures Manual and state law long before the 2022 election. Lake’s case is now on appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court.

Lawsuit seeks a court order

By contrast, this new lawsuit does not seek to overturn any results of last year’s election. Instead, it seeks a court order against Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes invalidating the current process, voiding the provisions in the election manual, and requiring recorders in the state’s 15 counties to use the narrower standards in future elections.

That, in turn, could result in more early ballots being tossed out due to what appear to be unmatched signatures, unless county election workers can track down individual voters and personally verify that they were, in fact, the people who signed the envelopes.

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An aide to Fontes said he would not comment until he has been served with a copy of the lawsuit.

But Republican Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said there is a good reason his office uses every signature it has on file to verify a signature on an early ballot.

“This allows us more comparison points,’’ he told Capitol Media Services. Richer said it also “allows for evolution of the voter’s signature,’’ which can change over time.

He also pointed out that those who register to vote while getting a driver’s license submit a signature electronically on a touchpad at the Motor Vehicle Division. That “is often the worst exemplar,” he said.

Richer said if a court rules that using additional signature comparisons is not allowed, “we will follow the statute as it is interpreted.’’

The challengers’ position

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A section of law requires the county recorder, on receiving early ballots, to “compare the signatures thereon with the signature of the elector on the elector’s registration record.’’

Langhofer, in his court filing, acknowledged there is nothing in state law that explicitly defines a “registration record.’’

But he argued that it “most naturally’’ means the state or federal documents by which someone signs up to vote and provides certain other information.

The most recent version of the Election Procedures Manual says county recorders “should also consult additional known signatures from other official election documents in the voter’s registration record.’’

Those include rosters signed by voters and early ballot request forms. Langhofer said state election officials also interpret this to include signatures on early ballot envelopes submitted in prior elections.

That manual was approved in 2019 by not just Democrat Katie Hobbs, who was secretary of state at the time, but also by then-governor Doug Ducey and then-attorney general Mark Brnovich, who are Republicans.

Langhofer said the problem goes beyond what he contends state law allows.

“The likelihood of a reviewer mistakenly determining that an affidavit signature corresponds to a signature in the registration record increases with each additional signature added,’’ he wrote. He said that is true even if all the additional signatures are known with certainty to have come from the voter.

“This problem grows even worse, however, when there is some chance — even a small chance — that an added signature might not have come from the registrant,’’ he said.

The lawsuit is being pursued by the Arizona Free Enterprise Club. It has backed various measures to impose new identification requirements on voters while opposing efforts to restore the state’s permanent early voting list.

Also suing is an organization called Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections.

It bills itself as opposing changes in election laws that seek to give one group a partisan advantage and enforcing “constitutional standards against voting laws and procedures that threaten or dilute the right of qualified citizens to vote.’’ Founders include former U.S. Attorney General William Barr and Karl Rove, who was a top adviser to former President George W. Bush.

Also named as plaintiff is Dwight Kadar of Sedona, who has long contributed to Republican candidates for state and federal office.