ACLU asks Arizona Supreme Court to extend 'curing' deadline after vote-count delays

PHOENIX -- Voter rights groups on Saturday petitioned the Arizona Supreme Court to extend the deadline for voters to fix problems with their mail-in ballots following delays in vote counting and notifying voters about problems.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Campaign Legal Center asked the state's high court in an emergency petition that the original 5 p.m. Sunday deadline be extended up to four days after a voter is sent notice of a problem.

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

“Because these ballots have not even been processed, Respondents have not identified which ballots are defective and have not notified voters of the need to cure those defects,” the petition stated.

Arizona law says people who vote by mail should receive notice of problems with their ballots, such as a signature that doesn’t match the one on file, and get a chance to correct it in a process known as “curing.”

The groups' petition noted that as of Friday evening more than 250,000 mail-in ballots had not yet been verified by signature. The bulk of them were in Arizona's most populous county, Maricopa County.

Just under 200,000 early ballots remained to be processed as of Saturday, according to estimates on the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office website.

Taylor Kinnerup, a spokesperson for the Maricopa County Recorder's Office, said it takes pride in conducting “accurate and timely” signature verification, and that all signatures for the general election went through the process by the end of the day Friday, “giving voters with questioned signatures ample time to cure their signature.”

“As an administrative agency, our office is bound by the letter of the law which gives up to five calendar days following an election for a voter to cure their signature,” Kinnerup said. "Voters are contacted directly if their signature is questioned but can also choose to see if their ballot needs to be cured online at BeBallotReady.Vote.”

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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.