Supporting Safe and Properly Administered Elections in Arizona (Challenges to Arizona's Election Procedures Manual)
At a Glance
Three lawsuits have been brought challenging Arizona’s 2023 Election Procedures Manual, which is a detailed guidance document outlining rules for election administration. These lawsuits make a variety of claims, including attempting to prevent hard-won, pro-voter court victories from going into effect. Campaign Legal Center is filing friend-of-the-court (amicus) briefs in two of the lawsuits in support of Arizona’s Secretary of State.
Back to topAbout this Case
Three lawsuits have been filed against Arizona’s 2023 Election Procedures Manual. The lawsuits -- brought by Arizona Republican Legislators, the Republican National Committee and the Arizona Republican Party, and Arizona Free Enterprise Club, respectively -- make a variety of claims, many of which try to thwart court decisions that protect Arizona voters.
The Arizona Election Procedures Manual (EPM) is a detailed guidance document that outlines the rules for election administration. The EPM spells out everything from voter registration, to how to ensure overseas military voters’ ballots are counted, to actually running a polling site on Election Day. It’s an important document for both election administrators and voters to navigate and understand Arizona’s election laws.
CLC successfully won a lawsuit against Arizona in February 2024 striking down provisions of two new Arizona laws that severely restricted the ability of Arizonans — particularly Latino and Native Arizonans — from exercising their freedom to vote. The EPM included guidance based on this suit to ensure Arizona’s Elections were run in a nondiscriminatory way. Two of these EPM lawsuits attack CLC’s voting rights win by challenging these parts of the EPM. The third tries to circumvent federal protections against voter intimidation.
What’s at Stake
CLC is filing friend-of-the-court briefs in two of the lawsuits in support of Arizona's Secretary of State.
In the first friend-of-the-court brief, on behalf of Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), Arizona Students’ Association (ASA), the San Carlos Apache Tribe (Tribe), and Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc., CLC is highlighting for the court: (1) the importance of the EPM in ensuring uniform and orderly elections and (2) the necessity for the EPM to explain how court rulings affect Arizona Election statutes.
In the second friend-of-the-court brief, CLC, along with Protect Democracy and the League of Women Voters of Arizona, are explaining that the First Amendment does not give people a right to intimidate voters. In fact, laws prohibiting voter intimidation protect the First Amendment rights of Arizona voters by making sure every citizen’s voice is heard on Election Day.