As Congressman Ron Barber and GOP challenger Martha McSally continue to battle for every vote in a race that Barber leads by just 512 votes, attorneys were in Cochise County court today in an effort to block the counting of provisional ballots in a predominantly Latino precinct.

Barber’s campaign manager, Jessica Floyd, said it was an effort by Team McSally to disenfranchise Cochise County voters.

“We respect the ballot counting process currently taking place and want to see it move forward,” Floyd said in statement. “The request for a temporary restraining order filed today is an active attempt by Martha McSally’s attorneys to disenfranchise voters in Cochise County. Throwing away the votes of Southern Arizonans is wrong and unacceptable.”

National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Daniel Scarpinato emailed this statement: “We believe that every voter has the right to an election that is free of fraud and ballot tampering. Southern Arizonans expect that their will is not diluted by fraudulent ballots. We want to make sure the law is followed and the rights of legal voters are preserved.”

Attorneys Eric H. Spencer and Michael Liburdi of the Snell and Wilmer law firm claim that approximately 130 provisional ballots should not be counted because they “have been spoiled because they were not sealed, as required, when they were transported from the Castro Park, Ramsey and Hopi Precinct polling locations to the Cochise County Elections Department and Recorder’s Office.”

The lawyers have asked for a temporary restraining order to keep the Cochise County Division of Elections from counting the ballots.

But attorneys Paul F. Eckstein, Dan Barr and David Gaona of the Perkins Coie law firm, which is representing Barber, say that Judge Wallace R. Hoggatt should reject the request for a temporary restraining order because Spencer and Liburdi “simply cannot point to anything in section 16-584(D)—or any section of the election code, for that matter—which would require that provisional ballots be sealed when presented to election officials for verification.”

Additionally, Barber’s attorneys argue that “above all, the public interest does not favor casting aside 135 valid provisional ballots as a result of an invented technicality that has no basis in Arizona law.”

UPDATED: Democratic Party Executive Director Luis Heredia weighs in with a statement:

The actions of Martha McSally and her campaign to disqualify provisional ballots in a majority Latino precinct and in other parts of Congressional District 2 are both deplorable and desperate. The attempts to use temporary restraining orders in hopes of swaying this election’s outcome threatens voters’ rights and should be taken seriously. If this is the tone that McSally wants to set, she clearly does not know the district nor does she possess the qualities of leadership that are needed. This is a desperate campaign that seems to think the only way it can win is to cherry-pick votes.

We are still awaiting comment from Team McSally.

The legal briefs in the case:

Request for TRO: TRO.pdf

Barber response: Response.pdf

This article appears in Nov 8-14, 2012.

Getting hassled by The Man Mild-mannered reporter

24 replies on “CD2 Update: Republicans Go to Cochise County Court To Block Counting of Provisional Ballots in Latino Precincts”

  3. DUH! Don’t you know that mexicans are not people to Repubs? Unless of course they are republican mexicans.

  4. Might as well call them the WOP (White Old Party). Evolution is catching up to the Republicans and their fate will be like the other dinosaurs.

  5. Why not just let anyone vote, regardless of nationality? The Russians, the Cubans, the Venezuelans all should have a voice to help bring down what was once a great nation.

  6. hey Padre, I’ve got a better idea. Why not let American citizens have their votes actually count, you know, like it says in the constitution. It would be a much better solution than erecting silly a straw men on a message board. BTW, “once a great nation”? Millions of Americans would beg to differ with your hyperbole, but feel free to “secede” and don’t let the door hit ya on the way out…

  7. Oh come on padre – there is nothing to say they are not american citizens. They must be scared of the truth. Not very brave or ethical from a former military woman.

  8. Uh..sorry..but IF they were NOT sealed – then that means the Democrats TAMPERED with them.. Thats ONE of the ways that the “process” is verified, by receiving a SEALED ballot. Otherwise, ALL Provisional ballots CAN BE tampered with..

  9. This is typical of the Republicans block votes, suppress votes to win. McSally is a Tea Party fraud, ran ads that were lies and mis truths. McSally is dishonest.

  10. Arizona is ending up as the worst state for frauding the election. suppressing the votes. not recording registered voters. What a fraud Senile Brewer you are.

  11. Of course the GOP doesn’t want a recount if THEIR candidate may lose out because of it. Hello?

    Take care and hang in there, everyone.

    Your friend,

    Warren

    Warren G. Richards
    Kayenta, Mesa & Tucson AZ

  12. There is an old saying that whom ever yells first, is the one that is guilty, so Barber quite your whining and confess, sounds to me that you are worried.

  13. so if the ballots aren’t sealed does that mean that
    a) the polling place worker didn’t tell the voter it had to be sealed
    b) the polling place worker unsealed it after the voter sealed it

    oh and let’s remember why were these voters voting provisionally in the first place?

    They weren’t found on the polling list
    Why?could they have been purged? could their registration not been properly recorded like so many? Oh and they should be congratulated for being there on the 6th instead of the 8th

  14. The ballots were not sealed for any number of reasons. In this state of Jan Brewer and Joe Arpaio, crookedness and deceit run rampart. Arizona is the most corrupt state in the nation. We are now the joke of the nation again. The federal government needs to step in quickly!!

  15. Rosie, why did McSally only request that provisional ballots not be counted in one precinct in a district that she is winning by 60% to 40%? If she was after a fair contest and was concerned about invalid ballots, she should have sued to discount ALL unsealed provisional ballots in Cochise County, not just in one precinct.

  16. When did I end up in another country??? What happened to the United States of America with the concept of a government “of the people, by the people and for the people”??? From now on, I will go to the polls and vote – not mail it in – and if for any reason someone tries to stop me – we will all end up on the evening news and most likely someone will go to jail!

  17. given the many problems with the election and the obvious disenfranchisement of Americans, Brewer must resign. This should be a criminal matter and as head she must resign. We’ve all known for years that she is incompetent, but this is way over the top!

  18. As a white middle age gun toting redneck male, I find it very wrong to go to court and challenge anyone’s vote. But if these provisional ballots are in question and there are only 130. lets have a member of Mcsalley and Barbers team and a voting official call the 130 voters on recorded speaker phone and see how they voted. Lets count there vote! Every american regardless of race deserves that right.

  20. something was weird with the voter polls. Within my own family of seven voters, there were two errors made and provisional ballots had to be used. None had moved, none were voting for the first time, and none had hispanic sounding names, so there’s not even the racist claim to account for it. Both were registered as Independent, and two counties, Pima and Maricopa, were involved.

    This is two out of seven, an awfully high percentage, and I have to wonder how many more people found the same problems.

    I don’t think this was deliberate, even an attempt to suppress certain votes. I think it was just was a sign of an incredibly inept process. Perhaps if our Sec of State, who is supposed to be in charge of elections, had spent more time doing his job and less time chasing birth certificates and being a co-chairperson of one of the presidential candidates campaign, it might have worked a little better.

  21. Republican-controlled state legislatures could make it so much easier to attain their objectives if they simply issued an edict proclaiming that all votes cast by registered Democrats be weighted less heavily — say, 75% — than those cast by Republican voters.

  22. That’s a laughable complaint. It invents requirements that ballots are sealed “as required” but can’t point to a single requirement in the state election law or administrative policies.

    And that’s in the ‘factual’ background. The theory of disenfranchisement through other peoples’ votes being counted is an appeal to a Jim Crow standard.

  23. They need to get the ACLU and Justice Department involved. The Republicans are trying to steal another election.

  24. If they are unsealed it means the Democrats tampered with them. No it doesn’t. I means someone tampered with them. Whose interests would be served by tampering with them? It doesn’t take a Einstein to figure that out!

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