A Yavapai County Superior Court judge has issued an injunction against part of a bill, HB2839, signed by Gov. Doug Ducey on March 3 which disenfranchised precinct committeemen. The law contained four sections related to various election procedures.
Section 4 of the law completely altered the way political party precinct committeemen (PCs) are selected.
The change generated an outcry and the Arizona GOP stepped up for its members and hired attorney Alex Kolodin, who filed the lawsuit last week.
“I and my colleagues Roger Strassburg, and Veronica Lucero are pleased to have been part of this important victory to prevent the decapitation of Arizona’s grassroots conservative movement by special interests. We are also grateful for the courage of Representative Chaplik and Majority Leader Toma in owning up to the legislature’s mistake in court and helping us to fix it,” said Kolodin of the Davillier Law Group.
“The County Association and Legislature inadvertently derailed an entire election due to lack of foresight and communication. Precincts are the backbone of our elections, and any legislation that impacts precincts means that our elections will be less secure, less representative, and less responsive,” said Arizona Republican National Committeemen Tyler Bowyer in a press release. “I am pleased many of our representatives now better understand the important role that Precinct Committeeman elections hold and are working to defend precincts and the integrity of our system for future generations.”
“The Republican Party of Arizona decided to step up and fight for our Precinct Committeemen (PCs) in the only way that would effectively stop HB2839 from removing PC elections from the ballot,” continued Bowyer. “Thank you to Yavapai County Chairwoman Lois Fruhwirth, Secretary Ann Roper, and the Yavapai County Republican Committee for joining our efforts in the lawsuit. Today, Yavapai County PCs packed the courthouse, so much so that the judge commented that he was not used to such a large audience.”
Arizona lawmakers were unaware of the portion of the law that took away precinct committeeman’s elected status due to the fact that the bill was passed in haste and unlike other bills that come before lawmakers the language that created the problem was added to the bill in plain black text. Commonly changes are highlighted by using all capital letters and either red or blue ink.
The Precinct Committeeman process has been restored in Arizona!
Thank you to @kelliwardaz, @azgop, and all the other grassroots Patriots who helped fight for this Victory! #HB2839
— Kari Lake for AZ Governor (@KariLake) March 22, 2022
Section 4 of HB2839 was ruled unconstitional today. PC elections will continue as always. Kudos to the @AZGOP represented by Alex Kolodin for their effort to get this done.
— Warren Petersen (@votewarren) March 22, 2022
A win for all precinct committee persons in AZ! @FannKfann @AZGOP @AZSenateGOP @AZHouseGOP pic.twitter.com/VO8qQrSsxd
— Karen Fann (@FannKfann) March 22, 2022
As previously reported by the Arizona daily Independent:
The bill was introduced to Arizona’s lawmakers as a way to address problems 2022 primary candidates are facing determining the minimum number of signatures they need on nomination petitions for congressional or legislative districts by the April 4 deadline.
But many of the 85 legislators who voted for HB2839 did not understand the consequences of Section 4 of the bill, which was added hours before the House and Senate voted. Section 4 significantly altered how manner in which political party precinct committeemen (PCs) will get into office this year.
Historically, precinct committeemen candidates get their names on the primary ballot by submitting a predetermined number of nomination petition signatures. Then the other voters in the same political party within that precinct elect their PCs.
The new law now does away with the petition signatures. Most importantly, it grants full authority to a political party’s local county committee to select the PCs from the interested candidate pool.
That was not the intent of the legislation, according to Senate President Karen Fann, who promised over the weekend to find a way to repeal Section 4 as soon as possible. However, some Democrats are hesitant to support the Section 4 repeal, despite the fact they voted for SB2839.
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