PHOENIX – The Democratic National Committee, or DNC, and their White House candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, sued on Friday the State of Arizona on behalf of several voters who waited up to six hours to vote in the March primaries.
The lawsuit was filed in a Phoenix federal court representing seven voters who had to wait up to six hours to vote.
The lawsuit said that delays affected Latino, African American and Native American voters, and focuses especially on the decisions of the authorities in Maricopa County, the most populous region of the state.
The suit asks why for the primaries on March 22 this county reduced the number of available polling stations to 60, when in 2012 there were 200, a provision which caused huge queues even after the polling closed.
Plaintiffs include the first president of the Navajo Nation, Peterson Zah, and the Senate campaign of Ann Kirkpatrick who aims to replace Republican John McCain.
The suit points out that Arizona has a long history of discrimination against minority groups and questioned the decision of the state’s elections department’s decision to reject provisional tickets at an “alarming number.”
It also indicated that the rights of minority voters could be violated in future elections as a result of a recently approved law by the state legislature, which makes it a crime for an individual to submit a ticket signed and stamped at a polling station in the name of another voter.
“Democrats believe our country is stronger when every voice is heard and every vote is counted, and we will keep fighting to make sure the sacred right of every American to vote is protected,” said DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz in a press release.
The plaintiffs request that the rights of all residents of Arizona be protected during the next general election in November, and that the court orders Maricopa County to present a plan specifying the locations and numbers of voting centers that will be available.
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