The Republican National Committee has sued Arizona’s largest county for allegedly violating state election law by refusing to appoint Republicans to local election boards overseeing this November’s general election, per its lawsuit filed on Friday.
The complaint, filed in the Arizona Superior Court, alleges that Maricopa Country officials have not appointed an equal number of Republicans and Democrats to the county’s various “Boards of Elections,” located at each polling place and responsible for conducting the election. The RNC claims that this imbalance occurred during the Aug. 2 primary election and is on track to occur, again, during the Nov. 8 general election.
“Poll workers staffing voting centers in Maricopa County in the August 2, 2022 primary election consisted in the aggregate of 857 Democrats and 712 Republicans,” the RNC wrote in the suit, while also claiming that in “at least eleven voting centers” during the primary “lacked even a single Republican poll worker.”
The lawsuit also alleged that officials have not appointed an equal number of Republicans as Democrats to “Central Counting Boards,” which are responsible for counting the votes after the polls close. They did not, however, specify the size of that deficit. (RELATED: Court Blocks Public From Seeing Some Arizona Election Audit Records)
AZ State Sen Wendy Rogers says Democrats are going to try and steal the election from Kari Lake and Blake Masters: “We need to vote on the last day so they don’t know how much to cheat by.” pic.twitter.com/rX092u2rUk
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) October 4, 2022
Furthermore, the lawsuit alleged that county officials did not provide records to the Arizona Republican Party, which is also a plaintiff in the suit, regarding efforts to search for Republicans to appoint as poll workers. Under Arizona law, county officials are required to document the reasons why appointing an equal number of partisans to election boards is impossible.
“The RNC cannot effectively monitor or verify that critical election positions are being organized and filled in a manner that is compliant with governing law,” the plaintiffs wrote, following their two requests for records went unanswered by county officials.
Maricopa County is the largest county in Arizona, comprising the state capital Phoenix. Nearly 4.5 million people live within the county, which is 62% of the state’s population.
Arizona is a battleground state in this year’s midterm election, with several statewide offices being closely contested between Republican and Democratic candidates. In 2020, then-candidate Joe Biden won the state by 0.3% against then-President Donald Trump, whose allies challenged the integrity of the election in court and at the joint session of Congress to certify the results of the election on Jan. 6, 2021.
This year, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona is running for a full term, after winning a special election in 2020, against Republican venture capitalist Blake Masters. Kelly’s seat is considered a crucial opportunity for Republicans to gain a Senate majority in the next Congress.
Additionally, in the governor’s race, Republican news anchor Kari Lake is running against incumbent Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. Lake, who is leading in most polls, has faced criticism for questioning the 2020 election, claiming that Biden “lost the election, and shouldn’t be in the White House” and saying that, as governor, she would not have certified his victory.
Meanwhile, in the state attorney general’s race, Republican candidate Abraham Hamadeh is leading Democratic candidate Kristen Mayes, a former corporation commissioner. Hamadeh has, likewise, been criticized for questioning the 2020 election as well as faced allegations that he committed voter fraud in the 2012 presidential election by voting for then-President Barack Obama when he was just 17.
“After several weeks of negotiations, Maricopa County left us no choice but to sue,” said RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel and Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward, adding that “this legal offensive is the latest step in Republicans’ ongoing efforts to promote free, fair, and transparent elections in Arizona,” in a press release referred to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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