Tipsheet

Trump Team Slaps Arizona SOS with a Lawsuit Over Rejected Ballots

The Republican National Committee and Trump campaign on Saturday announced a new lawsuit filed in Arizona over allegations that Maricopa County "incorrectly rejected votes cast by in-person voters on Election Day."

According to the lawsuit, the tabulation machine alerted voters to "facial irregularities in their ballot" and specifically mentions "ink 'bleeds,' splotches, stray marks" as the cause for ballots to be considered "spoiled."

Instead of allowing voters to correct the issue, poll workers allegedly pressed voters to click a green button to override the vote. The override allegedly disregarded the person's selections.

“Poll workers struggled to operate the new voting machines in Maricopa County, and improperly pressed and told voters to press a green button to override significant errors,” Matt Morgan, Trump 2020 campaign general counsel, said in a statement. “The result is that the voting machines disregarded votes cast by voters in person on Election Day in Maricopa County.”

The Trump campaign said they have collected declarations from voters who witnessed the problem and believe this was a widespread, large scale issue throughout Maricopa County, the state's largest county.

Both the RNC and the Trump campaign are asking for a review of the overvotes, which they say could be critical in the outcome of the presidential election.

"Arizona law requires that putative overvotes be subjected to further review in an effort to discern the actual intent of the voter," the lawsuit stated. "While this safeguard was afforded to putative overvotes cast on early ballots and on Election Day ballots that poll workers properly segregated in a separate repository, potentially thousands of voters across Maricopa County have been disenfranchised by systematic improper tabulator overrides."