On Thursday July 7, 2016, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP and Osborn Maledon, P.A. filed a motion for preliminary injunction, arguing that the Arizona secretary of state and Maricopa County officials should be required to produce Election Administration Plans (EAP), and obtain judicial approval of those plans, ahead of the August 30, 2016 primary election and the November 8, 2016 general election.
The motion seeks to prevent a repeat of the disastrous March 2016 presidential preference primary in which state and county officials oversaw a drastic reduction in the number of polling places in Maricopa County from 403 in 2008, to 211 in 2012, to just 60 this year. The reduction resulted in unbearable wait times in excess of five hours in many locations and effectively disenfranchised countless voters.
Prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder, which gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, Maricopa County would have had to obtain federal approval of the reduction before its implementation. Section 5 required jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination in voting to preclear all voting changes with the U.S. Department of Justice.
The motion asks the court to require the secretary of state and Maricopa County recorder to submit an EAP 30 days before the August primary and 45 days before the November general election. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors would be required to approve the plans before they are submitted to the court. Specifically, the EAPs would require officials to develop and implement measures to manage and reduce wait times, explain how the number of polling places was chosen, and create an Election Day communications plan.
In June, the Lawyers’ Committee, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP and Osborn Maledon, P.A. filed a lawsuit on behalf of two Maricopa County voters who were either unable to cast their ballots, or had to wait in line for many hours to do so in the March presidential preference election. The suit was filed in the Arizona Superior Court and names Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan, Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors as defendants.