By Al Swenson | Phoenix New Times
Democratic organizations and two individual voters have filed a lawsuit against Arizona’s secretary of state, claiming the Arizona statute that governs ballot placement offers an unfair benefit to Republican candidates.
The new filing in Arizona comes as two lawsuits on the same topic were also filed in Georgia and Texas, the Washington Post first reported on Friday. In the lead-up to 2020, several Democratic groups have sought ways to even the playing field, as they see it, filing lawsuits nationwide on access to voting and fair ballots.
The 22-page complaint filed Friday in federal court in Arizona takes issue with the statute for general election ballots, which gives the first position on every ballot to the political party that got the most votes in that county during the last gubernatorial election.
That gives Republicans an unfair advantage in Arizona, plaintiffs argue, because a majority of voters in many counties vote for Republican gubernatorial candidates, and have for years.
In 2018, for example, Governor Doug Ducey received a majority of the vote in all but four of Arizona’s 15 counties. That means in 2020, all the counties Ducey won will list Republican candidates first for every partisan race, on every ballot.
