American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona v. Richer

Approximately 80% of Arizonans vote by mail. Elections officials in Arizona are required to verify the signatures on all mail ballot envelope affidavits by comparing them to the signature(s) on file for the voter. If a signature cannot be verified, the ballot is set aside, and the voter must be notified and provided with an opportunity to resolve the perceived discrepancy so their ballot can be counted. This process is colloquially known as ballot “curing.” A.R.S. § 16-550(A). Each year, thousands of ballots are not counted because of perceived signature mismatches.

The ordinary deadline for curing signature issues is the fifth business day after a federal election. However, the emergency 2024 law shortened that period for elections in 2024, 2025, and 2026. The deadline for Arizona voters to cure mail ballot signature problems was Sunday, November 10, at 5 p.m. But as of Friday, November 8, the Arizona Secretary of State’s website reported that more than 250,000 ballots across the state still had not been “processed” by elections officials. On Friday at 6:53 p.m. and 3:23 p.m., respectively, Maricopa County reported a remaining 235,000 early ballots left to process and Pima County reported 3,301 early ballots left to process.

This meant that hundreds of thousands of ballots had not been “signature or otherwise verified,” and so voters with signature problems had not yet been notified of their need to act before the rapidly approaching cure deadline.

We filed an emergency petition in the Arizona Supreme Court to extend the deadline to cure unverified mail ballots to compensate voters for time lost due to processing delays. We invoked the Arizona Supreme Court's original special action jurisdiction to consider the issues raised in our petition and to grant the requested relief. Ariz. Const. art. 6, § 5(1), (6).

We alleged that potential delays threatened to unlawfully disenfranchise thousands of Arizona voters, violating their right to vote, their right to procedural due process, and their right to equal protection under the law. We requested that the deadline for signature cure to be extended to 96 hours after notice was sent to all voters about their signature mismatch by regular mail, and for a 48-hour extension of the deadline for all voters who were provided notification of the mismatch more quickly (by phone or overnight mail). We represented the ACLU of Arizona and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) on behalf of themselves and their members and sued elections officials across the state.

The counties took a range of positions in response to our petition; some filed statements of non-opposition to our request for an extension, while other counties opposed our request and stated that they had notified all voters of their need to cure their ballots by the end of the day on Saturday, November 9.

On November 10, the Arizona Supreme Court declined to take the case “in light of the responding counties’ assertions that they have been able to comply with the statutory notice requirements.”