Election rulebook submitted for approval despite threatened GOP lawsuit

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has submitted the new rulebook for the 2026 election to Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes for their review and approval, defying GOP lawmakers who say they will sue over rules they say violate state law.

The Election Procedures Manual, which must be revised and approved every two years, has undergone changes after previous Republican lawsuits challenged provisions in it. Some of those changes included deleted examples of what constitutes voter intimidation and deleting a paragraph saying that the secretary of state could finalize the state’s election results without a particular county’s results if the officials missed the state deadline.

“Every voter, in every corner of Arizona, should have the same fair and secure election process,” Fontes said in a statement Wednesday about the submission. “The EPM makes that possible.”

The manual also aims to try to alleviate ballot printing errors that have plagued election officials in recent years. Both Hobbs and Mayes must sign off on the EPM by December for it to take effect.




https://azmirror.com/briefs/election-rulebook-submitted-for-approval-despite-threatened-gop-lawsuit/