Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes submitted a new draft of the state’s Elections Procedures Manual to the governor and attorney general for approval, despite concerns from Republican lawmakers that parts of the document violate election laws.
The secretary of state is charged with updating the manual every election year to provide guidance to election officials across the state on how to comply with the complicated web of court cases, state laws and federal statutes that govern elections.
“The Election Procedures Manual, what we call the EPM, is the playbook for how elections are run in Arizona,” Fontes said in a video posted online shortly after he sent the draft to Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes, who both must sign off the manual before it can go into effect.
Fontes said the latest version of the manual was workshopped with a bipartisan collection of local election officials in monthly meetings since February.
“We’ve met with county and tribal elections officials, and we held one of the longest public comment periods of any EPM in the last 20 years,” he said.
That came after an Arizona appeals court found Fontes failed to provide adequate time for public comment the last time he drafted an EPM update.
This time, Fontes said his office received around 800 comments from 79 individuals or groups after releasing the latest draft in August.
“Some made the draft stronger,” Fontes said. “Others conflicted with law or court rulings.”
GOP complaints
Some of those comments came from Republican leaders at the Arizona Legislature, who argued a handful of provisions included in the document actually violate state law and threatened to sue if they remained in the document.
The contested sections include guidance on how election officials should handle voter registrations that do include documentary proof of citizenship, what to do when a state driver’s license database flags someone as a potential non-citizen, and what information petition circulators must provide to register with the state, according to an Aug. 29 letter from Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) and House Speaker Steve Montenegro (R-Goodyear).
The draft submitted to Hobbs and Mayes, both Democrats, addressed only two of the nearly one dozen concerns submitted by the Republican legislative leaders, including a section dealing with people paid to circulate petitions for initiative and referendum campaigns.
Arizona law requires circulators who are paid — or from outside the state — to register with the secretary of state and provide information, including their name, phone number and address. But the August draft of the EPM states that a circulator’s signatures shouldn’t be disqualified “if the circulator makes a mistake or inconsistency in listing that information.”
Montenegro and Petersen say that guidance violates a state law requiring petitions to “strictly comply” with rules passed by the Legislature — a law that was upheld by a trial court last year.
In the new draft, Fontes still included the disputed guidance but added that it was currently blocked by a court order that is under appeal.
Fontes also added some clarifying language addressing Republican concerns about how election officials treat voters who do not include an identification number or Social Security number on their registration form.
A half-dozen other changes requested by Montenegro and Petersen were unaddressed, including a provision in the draft manual that says when a database check provides affirmative evidence someone is not a citizen, election officials should give that person up through 7 p.m. on Election Day to provide proof they can vote.
They argued that applies only when mandated information is “incomplete or illegible.'” But they say that once an election official has actual indication the person is not a citizen, the application has to be rejected, a letter is sent to the applicant, and the case be referred to state and local prosecutors.
The Republicans also challenged Fontes’ guidance that party representatives can’t challenge early ballots over questions of whether the voter has provided proof of citizenship.
In his video message, Fontes acknowledged the potential for litigation, though he did not directly address the letter from Republican lawmakers.
“Not every suggestion will be included, and that’s OK,” he said. “The process allows for debate and disagreement, and can be resolved in court if there are any.”
See you in court
When Montenegro and Petersen first sent their letter in August, the Secretary of State’s Office called the threat of litigation premature, saying the manual was still being drafted.
“It's their prerogative to make criticisms, but the reality is that it’s a little early,” spokesman Aaron Thacker said last month.
Petersen, the Senate president, struck a similar tone when reached for comment by KJZZ on the latest version of Fontes’ manual.
“We need to see the final draft after the three have worked on it,” Petersen said in a text message, referring to Fontes, Hobbs and Mayes.
But he did not back off the threat to sue if the disputed sections are in the final version of the manual.
“If the final draft violates the law, we will absolutely litigate,” Petersen said.
It wouldn’t be the first time Republicans and Democrats have gone to court over the EPM.
Last year, a federal judge blocked Fontes from enforcing a provision in his 2023 version of the manual, which would have allowed him to refuse to include a county's vote if the local supervisors failed to certify the results.
Howard Fischer with Capitol Media Services contributed to this report.
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