An Arizona court found on Friday that ballot signature verification guidance issued by the secretary of state’s office does “not have the force of law.”

In the ruling from Judge John Napper, the Superior Court of Yavapai County denied motions to dismiss a complaint filed by Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE) against Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, that alleged Arizona’s Elections Procedures Manual (EPM) contains unlawful signature-match guidance. 

In Arizona, the EMP governs how elections are run in the state.

Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections (RITE) secured a massive win to restore the integrity of signature matching to authenticate mail-in ballots in Arizona last Friday, enhancing Arizona’s ability to trust its election results. 

In March, RITE sued the Arizona Secretary of State, challenging the state’s unlawful signature-match process. While state law requires county recorders to match mail-ballot signatures with signatures in the voter’s “registration record,” the Secretary instructed them to use a broader and less reliable universe of comparison signatures. That means the Secretary was requiring ballots to be counted despite using a signature that did not match anything in the voter’s registration record. 

This was a clear violation of state law.

Source: The Geller Report