“Lawsuit Filed to Protect Voting Rights in Maricopa, Arizona Following Recent Presidential Preference Primary Election Fiasco”

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Today, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, and Osborn Maledon filed a lawsuit challenging the decision to reduce the number of polling places for the March presidential preference election (PPE) in Maricopa County from 403 in 2008, to 211 in 2012, to just 60 this year. The suit, brought in Arizona Superior Court names Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan, Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors as defendants.

The county’s decision to reduce the number of polling places created significant wait times at polling places and effectively disenfranchised countless Arizonans who were unable to wait in line to cast a ballot. Maricopa County operated one polling place for approximately every 21,000 eligible voters, compared to an average of one polling place for approximately every 1,500 eligible voters in the rest of the state. Though the polls were scheduled to close at 7 p.m. local time, 20 of the 60 locations were open until after 10 p.m. and five polling places in Maricopa were open past midnight. Maricopa County is the largest county in Arizona, containing more than 60 percent of Arizona’s total population, and approximately 60 percent of Arizona’s minority population.

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