Senate President Warren Petersen is threatening legal action against Secretary of State Adrian Fontes over the current draft of the Arizona Elections Procedures Manual.
Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma wrote to Fontes on Monday, laying out multiple issues they have with the manual that is due to get its biennial update.
The biggest issue that Petersen has with the manual is that there's a "delay in the implementation of a 2021 state law" that routinely purges the active early voting list for those who have not voted in the past four years and "have not responded to notification" from their county recorder's office, according to a news release.
"Our current Secretary of State has a history of distorting our elections laws and pushing the envelope on questionable procedures," Petersen said. "My hope is that he will update the EPM with our corrections before submitting to the Attorney General and Governor for approval. Failure to do so will result in legal action."
In addition, the Republican also criticized Fontes for decreasing the time frame of public comment to two weeks when it is normally a month.
In an Aug. 1 news release, Fontes said his draft submission comes amid "heightened scrutiny" in elections, particularly in a battleground state such as Arizona, which became the center of attention following former President Donald Trump's narrow loss of the state in 2020. He will then submit the manual for approval to Gov. Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Kris Mayes on Oct. 1.
