Welcome to our final newsletter of 2022! Thanks so much for sticking with us through this rollercoaster of a year. After a busy election season, Democracy Docket is taking the week off between Christmas and New Year’s Day. We’ll be back in January, but in the meantime, you can help keep our content free by supporting us this holiday season. Plus, keep an eye out for The Brief in your inbox next Friday.
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Explaining Arizona Republicans’ Last-Ditch Legal Efforts |
The long-awaited Arizona GOP lawsuits are here. How could we think that candidates like Kari Lake and Mark Finchem would go down without one last fight?
First, let’s review the closest race — Arizona attorney general. As it currently stands, Republican Abe Hamadeh lost to Democrat Kris Mayes by 511 votes out of over 2.5 million cast, well within the 0.5% threshold to trigger an automatic recount under state law. Hamadeh’s election contest, filed last Friday, starts by stating that the plaintiffs are not “alleging any fraud, manipulation or other intentional wrongdoing,” but the lawsuit does blame a series of Election Day issues in Phoenix’s Maricopa County as the reason for Hamadeh’s narrow loss. Hamadeh asks for the current recount to be paused and for Maricopa County to give voters who were denied the chance to vote on Nov. 8 the opportunity to do so. While the state’s largest county did encounter day-of challenges, election officials stressed that all eligible voters should have been able to cast ballots. This request to allow additional voting a month later and declare Hamadeh the winner of the attorney general race is unprecedented. Notably, Hamadeh’s lawsuit is the only one of the three election contests backed by the Republican National Committee (RNC).
Last Friday evening, on the heels of Hamadeh’s lawsuit, Lake — the defeated Republican candidate for Arizona governor and a known election denier — filed her own election contest. In contrast to Hamadeh’s suit, Lake’s complaint hinges on allegations of illegal votes; notably, she is not being backed by the RNC. Lake cites everything from commingling between tabulated and untabulated ballots, long wait times, machine failures, chain of custody issues, Arizona’s signature matching procedures and alleged censorship from Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D), Lake’s gubernatorial opponent. The lawsuit notes that “between 15,603 and 29,257 Republican voters were disenfranchised from voting” because of Maricopa County’s voting machine issues. While it cites one firm’s exit poll, it’s still unclear how that figure was calculated. Lake, who lost by over 17,000 votes, asks to undo “Maricopa County’s canvass and Arizona’s certification of the results” and conduct a re-run of the election in Maricopa County. The other option for relief Lake suggests? That she should simply be declared the winner.
Despite no RNC lawyer calling him, failed GOP secretary of state candidate Finchem also managed to find legal representation — the same lawyer who represented Cochise County, Arizona in the county’s last round of litigation over its failed plan to conduct a hand count of midterm election results. This third election contest came from Finchem and Jeff Zink, the GOP candidate who lost the race for Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District against Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.). The plaintiffs allege that widespread failures in the state’s conduct of the midterm elections, specifically in Maricopa County, cost Finchem and Zink their elections and “resulted in Arizona becoming a laughingstock among the 50 states.” It’s important to note that Finchem lost his race by the largest margin of all the far-right candidates running for statewide positions; Zink lost in a landslide by over 52 percentage points.
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The election results for Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District. According to Zink, he should have won. |
The lawsuit blames many of Maricopa County’s issues on Hobbs, suggesting that she should have recused herself from overseeing the state’s elections since she was running for governor. Without all of these alleged violations of Arizona law, the plaintiffs argue that “201,232 votes would have gone to Finchem and 79,298 votes would have gone to Zink, changing the outcome of the election in favor of Plaintiffs.” (The plaintiffs do not explain how these figures were calculated.) The contest asks the court to annul the two elections at hand, order ballots to be inspected for fraud, require a “state-wide special election, counted by hand, without the use of electronic vote tabulation systems at the precinct level, [and] no mail in ballots” and open an investigation into Hobbs.
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In an amended complaint filed late on Dec. 12, Zink removed himself as a plaintiff. Gallego, his opponent, was consequently dismissed as a defendant. Finchem is now the only GOP candidate on the lawsuit.
On Monday, another lawsuit was filed, this time by an Arizona state senator and a handful of voters from Mohave County, Arizona who argue that their votes were diluted, violating their constitutional rights. The plaintiffs specifically point to issues with signature verification.
The who’s who of legal representation: As we mentioned, Hamadeh’s lawsuit is supported by the RNC. Interestingly, the RNC’s lawyers are from the law firm of Harmeet Dhillon, a far-right politician currently running against RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel. Lake, without the RNC’s backing, turned to Bryan Blehm for legal representation, the lawyer for the now-defunct Cyber Ninjas that helped run Arizona’s so-called audit of the 2020 election. (County election officials released a report rebutting Cyber Ninja’s “audit,” concluding that nearly all of the claims made were misleading or patently false.) Finchem is represented by a lawyer who Cochise County’s board of supervisors turned to last month when even Blehm said no to the supervisors and their plans to derail election certification. Two weeks ago, Cochise County’s lawyer attempted to move the lawsuit to a federal district court that does not exist and continues to misspell the name of Finchem’s opponent, Adrian Fontes, in the latest court filing.
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Finchem has a hearing taking place this morning. For Hamadeh and Lake, motions to dismiss hearings are scheduled for Monday, Dec. 19. If Lake’s case is not dismissed and continues, a trial will be held Dec. 21 and 22. If Hamadeh’s case is not dismissed, an evidentiary hearing will be held on Dec. 23.
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Late to the Game or Hints for 2023? Ohio Republicans Prioritize New Voting Restrictions |
This week, the Ohio Legislature approved House Bill 458, which would impose a strict photo ID requirement on voters. Currently, Ohio voters are required to present a non-photo ID, such as utility bills or bank statements, in order to vote, but the new bill would require photo identification, such as an Ohio driver’s license, state ID card or U.S. passport. Absentee voters are expected to include a copy of their photo ID with their absentee ballot.
That’s not all: H.B. 458 restricts each county to one ballot drop box or drop-off location, eliminates in-person early voting on the day prior to Election Day, decreases the number of days voters have to cure ballots and brings forward the deadlines to request and return absentee ballots. The unnecessary and problematic bill now heads to Gov. Mike DeWine (R) for his signature.
Beware of two more bills moving through the Ohio Legislature: House Bill 294 and House Joint Resolution 6. Both have cleared the House Government Oversight Committee and await action on the state House floor.
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H.B. 294 is an omnibus bill originally introduced in 2021. The latest version is unfortunately substantially worse for voters as it would remove an automatic voter registration system provision, several ways that allow voters to keep their voter registration active and a section that would codify curbside voting in future Ohio elections. H.B. 294 would limit drop boxes, shorten the early voting period, prohibit the Ohio secretary of state from sending absentee ballot applications to all voters and more.
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H.J.R. 6 would make it more difficult for voters to amend the Ohio Constitution by raising the threshold for proposed amendments to be enacted from 50% to 60% of the vote. The proposal is supported by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R), who is also a member of the flippant Ohio Redistricting Commission that has repeatedly failed to fulfill its duties as required by a 2018 constitutional amendment approved by 75% of Ohio voters.
Is Ohio simply catching up with its Republican counterparts in other states? Or, after a successful midterm election, do these anti-voter bills hint at what’s to come from Republican legislators in 2023? |
DOJ Appears To Investigate Trump’s 2020 Election Subversion Efforts |
Last week, the Washington Post reported that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) subpoenaed local election officials in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, four key swing states at the center of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to stop certification of the 2020 presidential election results. These subpoenas were issued by Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the DOJ’s investigation into classified documents at Trump’s Florida home and the events leading up to the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The first known requests were sent to election officials in Democratic-leaning cities that were the targets of Trump and his allies; this includes Maricopa County, Arizona (home to Phoenix); Wayne County, Michigan (home to Detroit); Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (home to Pittsburgh) and Milwaukee and Dane counties, Wisconsin (home to Milwaukee and Madison, respectively). Turns out, the DOJ isn’t done yet. Smith has expanded that list to include election administrators in Georgia, Nevada and New Mexico, including top state officials like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) and New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver (D).
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At least some of the subpoenas request “any and all communications in any form” between June 1, 2020 and Jan. 20, 2021 “to, from, or involving” Trump, the Trump campaign, lawyers and a host of former officials. These subpoenas suggest that Smith is expanding his investigation’s scope to include Trump’s post-November 2020 attempts to stop vote counting in certain Democratic cities and to send “alternate” slates of electors from these states.
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On Wednesday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) called upon the Georgia Legislature to consider eliminating the state’s general election runoff system. This follows two election cycles where Georgia’s U.S. senators were selected in closely watched runoffs, with Democrats prevailing. Georgia’s runoff system — which requires the winning candidate to earn over 50% of votes to avoid a runoff — was originally adopted in the 1960s to maintain the political power of white Georgians.
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On Tuesday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed a law requiring election officials to count provisional ballots cast by eligible voters who voted at the wrong precinct, but within the correct county and assembly district. Previously, New York would reject all ballots cast at incorrect polling locations, one of the factors that has contributed to New York’s exceedingly high ballot rejection rate. In denser areas, like New York City, it’s also much more likely for voters to show up at incorrect polling locations so this new policy is a victory for voters.
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In Washington state, Republican congressional candidate Joe Kent made a formal request (and paid the nearly $50,000 fee) to recount the results of the election in the state’s 3rd Congressional District. Kent trails Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez by 2,629 votes, or 0.83%, a high enough margin to avoid an automatic recount under state law. Gluesenkamp Perez’s victory was a major upset and flipped the seat from red to blue. Meanwhile, the automatic recount in Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District was completed on Dec. 12; as expected, it did not change the outcome of the race. Incumbent Rep. Lauren Boebert (R) won re-election.
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Last Saturday, Dec. 10, Louisiana voters headed to the polls for the state’s runoff election and approved three constitutional amendments. Over 73% of voters supported an amendment to bar any person who is not a U.S. citizen from voting in Louisiana. While only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections, a handful of cities or towns have proactively allowed permanent, noncitizen residents to vote in local elections. Notably, New York City passed such a law (currently the subject of GOP litigation) last year, the largest jurisdiction to do so. Louisiana’s ballot measure is partly a reaction to that move, as well as responsive to a false and reactionary belief that noncitizens are voting illegally in U.S. elections. There is no evidence supporting such claims, which are often fueled by an anti-immigrant sentiment.
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SPOTLIGHT: Democracy Is Still Under Threat After the Midterms |
By Charlotte Hill, director of the Democracy Policy Initiative at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. Read more ➡️ |
HOW WE WON: Democrats Won State Legislatures by Getting Personal |
By Jessica Post, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, and Mike Pfohl, executive director of Empower Project. Read more ➡️ |
We’re listening to the latest Talking Feds podcast episode featuring Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), journalist Emily Bazelon and law professor Laurence Tribe. Dive in to hear some analysis on the Moore v. Harper oral argument and the DOJ’s latest Trump probe.
We are resting up this holiday season. Enjoy the time spent with friends and family!
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Have a question? Join Marc and Paige today on Twitter Spaces at 2 p.m. EST for a discussion and Q&A on the latest democracy news. This will be the final episode of 2022 — don’t miss it! (Twitter Spaces is like a podcast, but live. You can listen to it without having a Twitter account.) |
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