By Kiera Riley | State Affairs
The Arizona Free Enterprise Club and America First Policy Institute’s legal challenge to three provisions in the 2023 Elections Procedures Manual is no longer pending after revisions to the 2025 EPM rendered the lawsuit moot.
AFEC, and later AFPI, sued Secretary of State Adrian Fontes in early 2024, challenging a long list of provisions in the 2023 draft. Though not all claims were successful, three resulted in changes to the 2025 EPM.
First, AFEC claimed a section of the 2023 EPM, which prohibited any actions made “with the intent or effect of threatening, harassing, intimidating or coercing voters (or conspiring to do so)” inside or outside polling places, violated the First Amendment.
A Maricopa County Superior Court agreed in a preliminary ruling. And though the secretary of state and attorney general initially sought an appeal, they backtracked amid drafting of the new manual.
The groups further claimed that two additional provisions exceeded state law and the secretary’s authority.
