Case SummaryPlaintiff appealed the lower court's denial of a preliminary injunction stopping Maricopa County from issuing ballot instructions regarding how to correct an error on the ballot.
Authority To Act (State Separation of Powers)
Unlawful Instructions From County Clerk Regarding How to Correct Ballot Error
Dispositive Ruling(s)
09/08/2020: Appellant Brief, Appellant argued that the District Court erred by denying its motion for a Preliminary Injunction to stop County Clerk Fontes from issuing his specific instructions to voters regarding how to correct mail ballot errors.
09/10/2020: Order/Ruling, Court ruled that Maricopa County Clerk Fontes is not authorized to instruct voters to correct their ballots by striking out their prior selections.
Can any legal pedes out there explain the significance and any relevant implications?
Not a legal pede, but if you fill out a ballot, mail it to me, all I hve to do is strike a line through your choice and fill in mine. That's what they tried to change the rule to, without any sort of legislation. Or oversight or anything, apparently. That's my understanding of it anyway.
That's correct, and there's more about the problem here.
Note that you could always alter a ballot by voting for multiple candidates in a single race and cause the vote for that race on that ballot to be invalidated (overvote). That is, someone could intercept a ballot and if it was a vote for Trump, also fill in the circle next to Biden's name and Trump wouldn't get credit for the vote (neither would Biden). The difference here is that with this new method of making a correction you could change the ballot to actually register a vote for Biden.
In case it isn't obvious to people, if an intercepted ballot is altered and then voided, that takes away a vote from one candidate. But if an intercepted ballot is alternated and then counted, that takes away one vote from a candidate and ADDS one vote to the other. In a two candidate race, that doubles the effect an altered vote can have.
This quote is from:
ARIZONA PUBLIC INTEGRITY ALLIANCE, v. ADRIAN FONTES https://healthyelections-case-tracker.stanford.edu/detail?id=235
Source: https://twitter.com/hughhewitt/status/1324482587948126210
Case SummaryPlaintiff appealed the lower court's denial of a preliminary injunction stopping Maricopa County from issuing ballot instructions regarding how to correct an error on the ballot.
Filed: 09/10/2020
State: Arizona
Type of Court: State
Status: Dispositive Ruling
Last Updated: 10/11/2020
Issue Tag(s)Vote-by-Mail (Other Vote-by-Mail Issue)
Authority To Act (State Separation of Powers) Unlawful Instructions From County Clerk Regarding How to Correct Ballot Error Dispositive Ruling(s)
09/08/2020: Appellant Brief, Appellant argued that the District Court erred by denying its motion for a Preliminary Injunction to stop County Clerk Fontes from issuing his specific instructions to voters regarding how to correct mail ballot errors.
09/10/2020: Order/Ruling, Court ruled that Maricopa County Clerk Fontes is not authorized to instruct voters to correct their ballots by striking out their prior selections.
Can any legal pedes out there explain the significance and any relevant implications?
Not a legal pede, but if you fill out a ballot, mail it to me, all I hve to do is strike a line through your choice and fill in mine. That's what they tried to change the rule to, without any sort of legislation. Or oversight or anything, apparently. That's my understanding of it anyway.
That's correct, and there's more about the problem here.
Note that you could always alter a ballot by voting for multiple candidates in a single race and cause the vote for that race on that ballot to be invalidated (overvote). That is, someone could intercept a ballot and if it was a vote for Trump, also fill in the circle next to Biden's name and Trump wouldn't get credit for the vote (neither would Biden). The difference here is that with this new method of making a correction you could change the ballot to actually register a vote for Biden.
In case it isn't obvious to people, if an intercepted ballot is altered and then voided, that takes away a vote from one candidate. But if an intercepted ballot is alternated and then counted, that takes away one vote from a candidate and ADDS one vote to the other. In a two candidate race, that doubles the effect an altered vote can have.
What bothers me is that they fought so damn hard to keep those instructions in. They defied an AZSC decision to do it.
September 2020, for those wondering.
The Cover Page of the Doc says Nov 5!
Check the filing dates.
I’m on mobile, so maybe I’m not seeing the entire thing.
Ruling is from Nov 5th, filing is from Sept.