Judge tosses last election lawsuit in Arizona

An Arizona judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit from two voters alleging mishandled ballots, the final election-related case pending in the state that voted for a Democratic presidential candidate for the first time in more than 20 years. 

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Margaret Mahoney ruled that the case, involving only two ballots, would not have altered the outcome of the election. 

Mahoney did not provide any further details on the ruling but said she would eventually issue an order in writing, according to The Arizona Republic. 

The lawsuit involved Laurie Aguilera and Donovan Drobina. Aguilera previously filed in the since-dropped suit against the county over the use of Sharpies on ballots. 

Friday’s suit alleged that Aguilera attempted to cast her ballot along with her husband on Election Day. 

According to Aguilera, the tabulator did not display a confirmation as it had for her husband. She claimed that Arizona poll workers then refused to honor her request for a new ballot. 

She then claimed that the county’s election website did not indicate she had voted but showed that her husband did. 

Meanwhile, Drobina said that a tabulator rejected his ballot when he tried to insert it on Election Day, after which a poll worker suggested he put it in a slot for ballots tabulated by individual election workers. 

Alexander Kolodin, the lawyer representing the two plaintiffs, argued that Drobina’s ballot should not have been reviewed by election officials, adding that state law requires machines — when operating properly — to “record correctly and count accurately every vote cast.”

The lawsuit comes amid several legal challenges by President Trump and his allies in an attempt to halt the certification of votes in key battleground states lost to President-elect Joe Biden. 

On Thursday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah dismissed a lawsuit from the Arizona Republican Party that alleged the county violated state law by allowing voters to cast their ballots at any polling center in the county as opposed to one in a particular district within the county. 

Hannah ruled against the state GOP’s request for an audit of the county’s results, which likely would have delayed its certification of the vote tallies.

With 100 percent of Arizona’s precincts reporting results, Biden won by about 0.3 percent, a margin of slightly more than 10,000 votes.

Arizona has a Nov. 30 deadline for certifying election results.