Arizonans who aren’t yet registered but want to vote in this election might have only through Friday, Oct. 16, to sign up.
In an agreement filed late Tuesday, challengers of the state’s original Oct. 5 deadline, and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, agreed to a legal “stay” of a judge’s recent decision giving Arizonans until Oct. 23 to register.
The deal, if it is blessed by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, will roll that deadline back to 11:59 p.m. Oct. 16.
If approved, it would also spell out that anyone who registered after Oct. 5 — as federal Judge Steven Logan had allowed — will get to keep their right to vote on Nov. 3 despite missing the original deadline. The only requirement would be that their registration forms “reach county election offices by that Friday night deadline” this week.
So far, according to data compiled Tuesday by Hobbs’ office, there were 26,652 new names added to the registration list since Oct. 5. That includes 8,317 Republicans, 6,237 Democrats, 393 Libertarians and 11,705 not affiliated with any recognized political party.
On top of that, another 74,035 people used the window the opportunity to update their registrations. That can include changing parties and updating addresses.
The deal may not be the last word, however.
Late Tuesday, Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich told the court that he — not Hobbs, a Democrat — represents the state.
“The secretary of state has no authority to bind either the state of Arizona nor the independently elected (and unnamed) county recorders, who would be responsible for implementing the injunction issued by the district court,” said Brnovich, a Republican.
He’s not the only one unhappy. The Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, represented by attorney Kory Langhofer, filed their own objection.
The two Republican groups not only want the court to reject the deal, but to totally overturn Logan’s ruling and declare he had no authority to void the Oct. 5 registration deadline.
In fact, Langhofer wants the appellate judges to rule that anyone who signed up since Oct. 5 cannot vote next month, even though they were relying on Logan’s order.
Logan issued his ruling earlier this month following a complaint by Mi Familia Vota and the Arizona Coalition for Change that the COVID-19 outbreak and the resultant travel and gathering restrictions imposed in March by Gov. Doug Ducey curtailed their ability to sign up new voters.
The judge agreed to add an extra 2ƒ weeks to help compensate.
At a hearing Monday, two of the appellate judges expressed doubts about the legality of Logan's ruling. But rather than decide the issue, they directed the attorneys to work out a compromise themselves.
The question now is whether the court will accept the deal, given that the plaintiffs who brought the challenge and the secretary of state, who was the sole named defendant, have agreed to it.
Logan had granted Langhofer’s clients legal status as “intervenors” in the case, giving them a legal voice.
The issue with Brnovich is more complicated, as he never joined the original lawsuit when it was before Logan. It was only after Logan’s ruling that the attorney general told the appellate judges he, too, wants to intervene, a motion that the court has yet to consider.
