Judge rejects emergency GOP lawsuit to extend voting hours in Maricopa County

Five minutes before polls closed in Maricopa County, a judge on Tuesday denied an emergency request by Republicans to allow voters to keep casting ballots for an extra three hours.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Tim Ryan rejected arguments that voters were denied their right to cast ballots because of glitches with equipment at 30% of voting centers.

"The court doesn't have any evidence that any voter was precluded from their right to vote," Ryan said during a hearing.

The Republican National Committee filed a lawsuit to keep polls in Maricopa County open for three extra hours, arguing that issues with voting equipment and erroneous instructions from poll workers prevented them from voting.

RNC lawyer Kory Langhofer asked the judge to allow voters to cast provisional ballots until 10 p.m. to ensure their votes were counted. He also asked the judge to "push back reporting the results of the election by the same amount of time."

Langhofer said voters were given conflicting instructions at voting centers, causing them to believe they could cast their votes at other locations. They later found out that they were required at the new locations to file a provisional ballot, which is set aside until officials can verify its legitimacy. 

County lawyer Tom Liddy said no voters were disenfranchised. The county's 223 voting centers were open all day.

"Not a single one was closed," he said. "Not for a single minute."

Liddy is civil services division chief for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, which represents the county in litigation.

Voters have had nearly a month to cast ballots by mail, he said. No voters were turned away from a voting station, even if they did end up filing a provisional ballot.

Liddy also argued that extending voting hours could open the door to claims of election fraud, which some GOP candidates have repeatedly raised since the 2020 election.

Indeed, many, including Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, have made claims of election fraud a cornerstone of their campaigns. Lake has discouraged mail-in voting and urged supporters to vote in person.

She and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem filed a lawsuit to bar the use of tabulation machines in the 2022 election. The lawsuit failed and they filed a notice of appeal.

Phoenix lawyer Roy Herrera, who filed an intervening motion on behalf of U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., also argued against extending voting hours.

Arizona laws are very clear on the hours of polling operation, and the courts rejected an effort to extend voting times during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.

"There's nothing different in this case." Herrera said.

Lake and U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters also were plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which was filed just after 5 p.m. It alleged voters who followed instructions and went to a second polling station either were denied an opportunity to vote or were required to vote with a provisional ballot.

The lawsuit claimed the provisional ballots would be set aside and would not be tabulated.

“At least 36% of all voting centers across Maricopa County have been afflicted with pervasive and systemic malfunctions of ballot tabulation devices and printers, which has burdened voters with excessive delays and long lines,” according to the lawsuit.

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The lawsuit named the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and County Recorder Stephen Richer, who was dismissed from the case during Tuesday's hearing.

The county Elections Department runs Election Day operations, not the Recorder's Office. 

The lawsuit alleged voters were induced by poll workers "to discard their ballots or otherwise forfeit their opportunity to cast a legally sufficient vote."

Voters were erroneously informed by poll workers that they could "spoil their ballot," present at a different voting location later and cast a valid, regular ballot, the lawsuit said. 

But that's not what happened, the suit said.

County election officials on Tuesday confirmed at least 30% of polling stations were affected by problems with voting tabulators unable to read formatting markers on ballots. The printed markers were not dark enough for the tabulators to register them correctly, officials said.

The tabulators, which collect ballots after voters fill them out, instead just spit them out untallied.

Fields Moseley, Maricopa County spokesperson, said Tuesday he could not discuss the lawsuit. He said 67 of 223 voting centers "had some level of issue with rejected ballots."

Bill Gates, Board of Supervisors chair, said Monday the county would not willingly extend voting hours.

"The only way that this county would extend the voting hours beyond those who arrive at 7 p.m. is from a court order. Period,” he said.

Langhofer said Tuesday that Republicans wanted to ensure people had a chance to vote and "voters’ rights are protected."

Polling issues were not targeted at Republican districts or voters, Langhofer said. However, Republican voters at the polls outpaced Democrats by 3.5 times, he said.

Republican National Committee lawyer Harmeet Dhillon said on Twitter the court ruled against them "despite the admitted problems with voting in Maricopa County, and multiple factual declarations from voters affected by bad instructions and malfunctioning equipment."

The polls closed at 7 p.m. Anyone in line at the time was allowed to vote.

Republic reporter Mary Jo Pitzl contributed to this article.

Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter for The Republic. Reach him at robert.anglen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8694. Follow him on Twitter @robertanglen.

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