The Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP), along with its secretary Yvonne Cahill, filed a lawsuit against Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs over more actions she took that appear to be making it easier to commit voter fraud. The AZGOP’s Application for Issuance of Writ Under Exercise of Original Jurisdiction asks the court to compel Hobbs, who is a Democrat, to include signature verification procedures in the election procedures manual and remove the language she added authorizing the setup of unmonitored ballot drop boxes, and challenges “no-excuse” early ballots as violating the Arizona Constitution.
AZGOP Chair Kelli Ward, who has been out on the forefront combating election fraud since the 2020 presidential election, told The Arizona Sun Times, “We want to make sure that our elections are secure so we can restore voter confidence and strengthen our representative republic.”
GOP Attorney Alexander Kolodin, who drafted the lawsuit, explained, “Many states with similar provisions have amended their constitutions to allow for mail-in voting. Yet in 1991, Arizona’s politicians gave us an insecure system of no- excuse mail in voting without taking this necessary step. Now Secretary Hobbs has taken this unconstitutional act and run with it, authorizing unmonitored drop boxes without any legal authority and failing to even provide lawful procedures for verifying signatures on early ballots. Enough is enough.”
Hobbs is required by law to update the state’s election procedures manual every other year, with the Arizona Attorney General’s approval, but Hobbs has refused to make the legal changes Attorney General Mark Brnovich laid out, which include eliminating a provision allowing voters to cast ballots in precincts they don’t live in. The Democratic National Committee filed a lawsuit challenging Arizona’s laws requiring voters to vote within their own precincts. Hobbs refused to defend it on behalf of Arizona, so Brnovich stepped in to defend it, all the way to the Supreme Court, where he won in Brnovich v. DNC.
