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Ten chief state election officials, as well as elections staff from three additional Republican-led states, attended the confab, which was described by one prominent organizer as a 'private, confidential meeting.'

A federal elections agency commissioner spoke at a secretive conference of conservative voting activists and GOP secretaries of state and congressional staff — a step election experts call highly improper for an official charged with helping states administer fair and unbiased elections. Read more»

Attorney General  Kris Mayes at a September election forum. Mayes criticized the Election Integrity Unit before taking office, but now plans to use the unit to protect voting rights.

Former AG Brnovich hid findings from the election fraud unit that debunked claims of widespread fraud in Arizona’s 2020 election, and Kris Mayes announced she will use the unit to combat voter suppression - leading to questions about whether the unit should exist at all. Read more»

The bill comes as attorneys across the country and in Arizona have faced disciplinary action and revocation of their licenses for bringing challenges to the election based on frivolous claims of election fraud as well as lawsuits against political rivals.

Proposed Republican legislation would prohibit both the State Bar and the Arizona Supreme Court from punishing attorneys for making baseless election fraud complaints in Arizona courts - though it’s unclear who would determine if either were in violation of the measure. Read more»

Recorder David Stevens speaks at a Cochise County Republican Club event in 2022. Also at Stevens’ table was friend and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem.

Arizona GOP leaders spent two years promoting unfounded claims about compromised vote-counting machines, and they found it in Cochise County recorder David Stevens, who grasped onto the idea, devised a plan, and stoked the sentiment starting to take hold locally. Read more»

From left to right: Luis Marquez, Manuel Castro and Guillermina Fuentes after Fuentes was released from jail.

Since a 2016 law pushed by Arizona Republicans made it a felony punishable by prison time to collect a voter’s ballot unless the collector is their relative, household member, or caregiver, the excitement and joy surrounding voting in San Luis has been replaced with fear. Read more»

A voter drops a ballot at the Maricopa County ballot drop box outside the county juvenile court, where several intimidation incidents were reported.

Tempers flared at a Arizona Senate election committee meeting after Democrats accused Republicans of pushing election conspiracy theories that are reducing the public’s faith in election integrity. Read more»

A voter drops a ballot at the Maricopa County ballot drop box outside the county juvenile court, where several intimidation incidents were reported.

House municipal oversight and elections committee Republicans unanimously pushed through four bills Wednesday evening that they say will improve the integrity of Arizona’s elections, while Democrats accused Republicans of pushing false claims of election fraud.. Read more»

Armed vigilantes wearing tactical gear were captured by security cameras on Oct. 21, 2022, outside Maricopa County’s drop box in Mesa.

A federal judge on Friday preliminarily declined to block members of the group Clean Elections USA from gathering within sight of ballot drop boxes following complaints that armed and masked members intimidated potential voters during the 2022 election. Read more»

Faith leaders with Faith in Action lead a march on March 2, 2022, in Washington, D.C. to pressure President Joe Biden and the Democratic-majority Congress to expand voting rights and support for immigrants.

Noncitizens are prohibited from voting in federal elections, and false claims they are voting illegally have been at the center of Republican campaigns - and efforts by cities to give noncitizens a say in local elections is being used to suppress voting rights and spread conspiracy theories. Read more»

An election worker gathers ballots at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on Nov. 10, 2022.

With Maricopa County saying that it had finished its vote count, it appeared that Arizona’s midterm had reached a milestone with no votes left to count, but the ordeal is far from over as the focus will be on recounts – and any lingering allegations of voter fraud or election discounts. Read more»

In 2020, the electorate was older, whiter, more female and more educated than the country as a whole - a consistent pattern in American elections, even as the nation has become more diverse.

The turnout for 2022 is still coming into focus as the last ballots continue to be tallied - but it looks to be unusually high for a midterm election - and the way that voter turnout is calculated reveals who counts, and who is left out, in American elections. Read more»

Voters in Arizona who forget to sign mail-in ballots aren’t legally entitled to cure them after Election Day, a federal appeals court ruled in December.

Thousands of Americans will lose their right to vote in this year’s midterm elections over mistakes like forgetting a signature or putting down the wrong date on paperwork for mail voting. Read more»

Arizona is one of several states where armed groups have been seen watching drop boxes for non-existent voter fraud leading to an increase in cases being submitted to the DOJ of voter intimidation by the Secretary of State’s Office.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday that it will be sending personnel to monitor the polls in five counties in Arizona - including Pima County - and 23 other states as voter intimidation complaints reach double digits in the state. Read more»

A ballot drop box can be seen by the curb in front of the Maricopa County Juvenile Court in Mesa. Drop boxes have long been popular and uncontroversial in Western states, such as Arizona, until the 2020 election.

The campaign against drop boxes is part of the broader push to make voting more difficult after the 2020 election after right-wing activists failed to turn up evidence of widespread voter fraud, and further restrictions appear likely. Read more»

The First Amendment and finding a way to tailor an order that is amenable to both parties will likely be key to the case going forward and was the key point of contention and discussion Monday.

The Justice Department is seeking a temporary restraining order against a group that is surveilling drop boxes across Arizona after the judge overseeing one of the cases last week declared that the injunction being sought would likely violate the First Amendment. Read more»

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