ACLU asks Arizona Supreme Court to extend ‘cure’ period after vote count delay

PHOENIX (AP) — Voter rights groups petitioned the Arizona Supreme Court on Saturday to extend a deadline for voters to resolve issues with their mail-in ballots amid delays in counting ballots and notifying voters.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Campaign Legal Center asked the state’s high court in an emergency petition to extend the original Sunday 5 pm deadline to four days after voters are notified of the problem.

The groups argued in the petition that “tens of thousands of Arizonans could be disenfranchised without any notice, let alone an opportunity to take action to ensure their votes are counted.”

“Because these ballots have not even been processed, respondents have not identified which ballots are defective and have not notified voters that these defects need to be repaired,” the petition states.

Arizona law says people who vote by mail should be notified of problems with their ballots, such as signatures that don’t match those on file, and given an opportunity to correct them through a process called “correction.”

The groups’ petition noted that as of Friday evening, more than 250,000 mail-in ballots had yet to be signature verified. Most of them are in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county.

The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office website estimates that nearly 200,000 early ballots remained to be processed as of Saturday.

Election officials in Maricopa did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Gabriel Sandoval is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.