by Josh Bernstein

If the Republican Party of Arizona and/or the campaigns for Republican Governor, Attorney General, or Secretary of State (the Senate Candidate conceded) decide to contest the results of this mid term election, their arguments should be based solely on constitutionally sound arguments that will prove multiple violations, damages, and disenfranchisements of Maricopa County voters that were outcome determinative. Outcome determinative means that the violations were so severe that they determined the outcome of an election.

Article two, section twenty one of the Arizona Constitution states, "All elections shall be free and equal, and no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage." It is a fact that over seventy voting locations in Maricopa County had issues with ballot tabulator machines not being able to read voters ballots.

In addition, there were also reports of printers having configuration issues, and even ink settings being improperly set rendering ballots unreadable. All of these issues, whether purposeful or not violate Article two, Section twenty one's first sentence which states, "all elections shall be free and equal." Having over seventy locations, which is roughly thirty percent of all of Maricopa Counties voting centers compromised, not working, or inoperable violates the Arizona Constitution. This election was not "fair or equal" in access to voting rights and these damages were indeed outcome determinative.

What happened on Election Day in Maricopa County was a violation of voters Equal Protection rights, their First Amendment rights, and their voting rights.

Moreover, Maricopa County Election Officials lied to voters when they instructed them to “check out” and “check back in” at another polling location to vote. Nowhere in the Arizona Elections manual does it say this is an option or a solution. In fact, once someone “checks in” whether they voted or not they can’t leave and go to another polling location because it would be considered “double voting” as there is no way to determine if the voter didn’t vote at two different polling locations. For this reason alone, this Election should be annulled and redone.