Arizona Public Integrity Alliance v. Fontes

In the summer before the 2020 Presidential Election, the Maricopa County Recorder included a new instruction advising mail-in voters who make a mistake on their ballot to simply draw a line through their mistake rather than discarding the ballot and obtaining a new one, as was required previously. Plaintiffs moved for a preliminary injunction requiring the County to produce new instruction sheets without the questionable instruction. The Maricopa County Superior Court denied Plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction. The Arizona Supreme Court ultimately ruled that the Maricopa County Defendant was not authorized to instruct voters to correct their ballots by striking out their prior selections.