Attorney General files emergency motion to intervene with extended voter registration deadline

Voter registration appeal

By Karly Tinsley | October 7, 2020 at 9:25 PM MST - Updated October 7 at 10:34 PM

TUCSON, Ariz. (KOLD News 13) - With 27 days until the General Election, things may change in Arizona once again.

On Monday, the U.S. District Court for Arizona decided they will grant a preliminary injunction on the voter registration deadline until Oct. 23- after two nonprofit organizations, Mi Familia Vota and Arizona Coalition for Change, filed a Complaint seeking a declaratory judgment and an Emergency Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction against Defendant Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

The Republican National Committee filed an appeal the same day hoping to stop it, and now the Arizona Attorney General is joining in the effort.

“We want the court to act as quickly as possible," said AG Mark Brnovich. “Look, we have these election laws in place procedures in place, let’s not cause some confusion and chaos right before a major election. What we’re basically asking the court to do is stop letting federal judges unilaterally re-write Arizona election law."

In the emergency motion filed Wednesday, Attorney General Brnovich states that since the 1990, Arizona’s election law has stated registration must end at midnight, 29 days before the election. This year was the 5th, now it’s the 23rd.

States Emergency Motion to Intervene by Karly Nicole on Scribd

Brnovich feels it’s going to cause confusion, saying the Supreme Court has recognized anytime there’s chaos during an election, voters can be deterred from participating.

“If people want to change the laws the time to do that is 6 months or a year before the election, not 6 days before the election," said Brnovich.

As early voting kicked off Wednesday as well in Pima county, Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez is still encouraging people to register despite acknowledging there had been efforts to encourage registration for months.

“There’s been plenty of opportunities, so it’s going to go through the court process," said Rodriguez.

The registrations that came in the two days after extension have yet to even be touched.

“Anything that came in dated the 6th or dated today we haven’t even gotten to yet so we have time," said Rodriguez.

And that’s strictly due to the fact that anything can happen in the coming weeks within the courts.

“One judge will say you count it, another judge during the appeal will say you don’t. So we kind of keep it separate so we know where we’re at in the process,” said Rodriguez.

No matter if the registrations after Monday are counted, it’s already been a record-breaking year. Whether or not the number will grow, is in the hands of the court.

In the order filed by the Republican National Committee attorneys, it stated they wanted the appeals court to block voter registration by today- Wednesday, October 7th.

Brnovich said he hopes the 9th circuit will act quickly and come to a decision soon.