Pima County Republican Party (PCRP) Chair Kathleen Winn filed a lawsuit this month on behalf of the PCRP against Attorney General Kris Mayes and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes over recent changes made to the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPM). The complaint, which was drafted by the Oversight Project and State Representative Neal Carter (R-San Tan Valley), alleged that the provisions allow for “arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement” that could result in criminal penalties. Any violation of the EPM is a class 2 misdemeanor.
The EPM instructs election officials to “preserve order and remove persons engaging in voter intimidation, threats and coercion, as defined in state and federal law, from the voting location.” This conduct is described as “[a]ggressive behavior, such as yelling at or taunting a voter or poll worker,” “[i]mpersonating a law enforcement officer or otherwise wearing clothing, uniforms or official-looking apparel intended to deter, intimidate, or harass voters,” and “[r]aising repeated frivolous voter challenges to poll workers without any good faith basis, or raising voter challenges based on race, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, or disability.”
Winn accused the changes to the EPM of “plac[ing] restrictions (‘Political Speech Restrictions’) on constitutionally protected speech in a manner that is both overly broad and vague, in a manner that fails to provide adequate notice to voters and election observers of what conduct is prohibited…”
The complaint said the provisions violate Due Process and Equal Protection in the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. She cited case law from the Supreme Court which held that “[a] statute which criminalizes speech or conduct must ‘provide a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice of what is prohibite[d].’” That ruling also said that “[a] statute may not be ‘so standardless that it authorizes or encourages seriously discriminatory enforcement,’ as doing so ‘fails to comport with due process.’”Read the rest of the article