Dems, Clinton Campaign To Sue Arizona Over Primary Election Mess

Voters wait in line to cast their ballot in Arizona's presidential primary election, Tuesday, March 22, 2016, in Gilbert, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
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A federal lawsuit led by the Democratic Party and the Hilary Clinton campaign will be filed Friday challenging Arizona’s election practices that allegedly led to long wait times in the primary contest last month, the Washington Post reported.

The complaint will accuse Arizona of having an “alarmingly inadequate number of voting centers” that “resulted in severe, inexcusable burdens on voters county-wide, as well as the ultimate disenfranchisement of untold numbers of voters who were unable or unwilling to wait in intolerably long lines,” the Post said.

It will zero in on Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county, where the 200-plus polling precincts had been replaced with about 60 vote centers, and residents reported waiting in lines as long as five hours.

The Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Arizona Democratic Party and several Arizonans are filing the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Phoenix, where they’ll ask the court to examine the plans for polling places in November’s general election. The Clinton campaign will join after it is filed, the Post said. The lawsuit was organized by Marc Elias, her campaign lawyer and voting rights attorney who has brought a number of other elections-related lawsuits elsewhere.

The lawsuit will also ask the court to stop other voting regulations put forward by the state that it says have a “dramatic and disparate impact” on minority voters, according to the Post.

Arizona Secretary of State, Michele Reagan, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and the Maricopa County Recorder, Helen Purcell are among the defendants that will be listed on the suit, according to a DNC press release.

A Department of Justice investigation into the Arizona primary election is also underway.

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