A federal judge ruled Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes can’t refuse to include a county’s vote in statewide totals if its supervisors fail to certify election results.
U.S. District Court judge Michael Liburdi said Fontes’ proposal was “utterly without precedent” and would “impose a nuclear-level burden on voting rights.”
Liburdi said skipping over uncertified votes to finalize state results would disenfranchise those voters who already cast their ballots.
And he was unconvinced by assurances from Fontes that the provision was meant largely to spur county supervisors to comply with the law and likely would never be enforced.
There has been one instance of local supervisors delaying the certification of election results.
In 2022, Cochise County supervisors didn’t canvass results until a court ordered them to.
