Trump-aligned law firm sues Arizona secretary of state over Prop. 144 language

A law firm aligned with President Donald Trump is suing Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes over how he plans to describe a Republican election reform proposal on November general election ballots.

America First Legal, which was co-founded by Trump advisor Stephen Miller, accuses Fontes of using misleading language to describe Proposition 144.

That’s a proposal sent to the ballot by Republican lawmakers that would make a number of changes to Arizona election laws, including requiring all voters to present an I.D. to cast a ballot, even if they vote by mail.

Politics

Here are the 10 measures lawmakers sent to the Arizona ballot in November

Camryn Sanchez, Wayne Schutsky

Arizonans will get to decide whether to add voter ID requirements to state elections, keep transgender children out of peer’s bathrooms and more in November, as lawmakers passed a series of last minute ballot measures.

Prop. 144 would also ban foreign nationals from contributing to efforts to influence campaigns in Arizona and give the Legislature broad latitude to change election laws in the future to speed up vote counting and maintain election security.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of three Arizona voters who say they support Prop. 144, takes issue with a 50-word “descriptive title” and other language Fontes crafted that will appear on the ballot.

The descriptive title crafted by Fontes states the proposed law “requires all voters, including voters who vote by mail, to show government-issued ID to vote in each election; makes other changes to election administration and campaign finance prohibition.”

The description makes no mention of the two sections of the proposal that explicitly state non-citizens cannot vote in Arizona elections, something that is already illegal.

Specifically, Prop. 144 would add the phrases “only citizens may register and vote in Arizona elections” and “Arizona elections shall be decided solely by the votes of eligible citizen voters” to state law.

“The Secretary’s 50-word descriptive title and six-clause ‘yes’-vote statement omit Proposition 144’s primary purpose: ensuring that only citizens register and vote in Arizona elections,” according to a statement from America First Legal.

The lawsuit also claims that “yes-vote statement,” which explains the impact the law will have if approved by voters, is flawed.

For example, Fontes’ statement says that Prop. 144 “may make it harder to challenge election laws” in the future. America First Legal argues that is not an accurate description, calling it “a contested legal conclusion and litigation prediction.”

The lawsuit also claims the description of the prohibition on foreign contributions is misleading, because it states “similar to prohibitions that already exist in federal law.”

“The federal foreign-national prohibition is limited to candidate-directed contributions and expenditures and ‘permits foreign nationals to make contributions and expenditures related to ballot initiatives’...Section B of Proposition 144, by contrast, reaches all spending ‘to influence an Arizona election,’ including ballot-measure initiatives,” according to the lawsuit.

A spokesperson for the Secretary of State's Office defended the language.

"The bottom line is this office must be judicious with the amount of space we take up on the ballots and reiterating their talking point about requiring citizenship and voter ID was taking up unnecessary space," spokesperson Calli Jones said. "We have a responsibility to make sure people know what these referrals actually do and how they may change existing law, not regurgitate talking points.”

The lawsuit noted the description written by Fontes only used 28 words, below the 50-word maximum allowed by law.

In a separate case, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge upheld the legality of Prop. 144 and ruled it can go before voters in November. Tempe Councilman Randy Keating, who filed that lawsuit trying to remove the measure from the ballot, appealed the ruling to the Arizona Supreme Court.