READ: AZGOP Asks AZ Supreme Court To Strike Down Popular Long-Standing Early Voting System (READ Complaint)

UPDATE, 5:30pm: The Supreme Court is giving AZ Secretary of State Katie Hobbs until March 11 to respond to the AZGOP's Special Action seeking to throw out Arizona's entire early voting system. All briefing will be completed by March 18 and the Justices will then decide the matter without hearing oral arguments.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE, 2/28, 2:15pm: READ: AZGOP Asks AZ Supreme Court To Strike Down Popular Long-Standing Early Voting System (READ Complaint)

Arizona has long had a very popular early voting system. The Arizona Republican Party thinks the state has been violating the Constitution all of those years, and filed an action directly with the Arizona Supreme Court to throw it out.

AZGOP Chair Kelli Ward hired attorney - and, candidate - Alex Kolodin to file the direct action. The Arizona Supreme Court rarely takes a case before it has been filed and considered in Superior Court ("original jurisdiction"), but Kolodin believes that this is purely a legal issue with no contested facts and that this sudden revelation needs to be decided on an expedited basis.

In addition, the AZGOP alleges that Secretaries of State have violated the law by not including signature verification guidelines in the Election Procedures Manual, and that ballot drop boxes may not be used.

The allegations that early voting is unconstitutional are based on the words "at the polls" in the Arizona Constitution. Kolodin then uses a strict definition of the word "polls". 

Interestingly, the Complaint only cites that language in the context of determining citizens' initiatives or referenda - not races for elected offices. 

The newly-assigned case number is CV-22-0048, and the case was filed on Friday.

(This is a developing story. Please check back for further updates.)

This article was reported by AZ Law founder Paul Weich. Paul is currently running for a seat in Arizona's House of Representatives.

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