Elections officials’ lawyer calls Arizona Sharpie lawsuit remedies unworkable

PHOENIX (AP) — An attorney defending election officials in metro Phoenix in a lawsuit over the use of Sharpies to complete Election Day ballots said the remedies proposed by those who filed the challenge are unworkable.

The lawsuit alleges tabulation equipment was unable to record a voter’s ballots because she completed it with a county-issued Sharpie. It asks that all such voters be given a chance to fix their ballots and that voters who used Sharpies be present to watch workers count ballots.

Tom Liddy, an attorney representing election officials, told a judge at a hearing Thursday that Arizona’s ballot secrecy rules would prevent matching a given voter with an in-person Election Day ballot that has already been counted.

Liddy said there are already official observers watching the counting and he pointed out that live video of vote counting is available on a county website.

“The voters have a right to know that the allegations flying around the Internet about Sharpies being dropped from black helicopters and cheating them out of their votes are not true,” Liddy said.

Alexander Kolodin, a lawyer who filed the lawsuit, said people are concerned about how vote counting works and that more observers should immediately be allowed into the counting rooms. Kolodin said the video provided on the website is low resolution and shows only a partial view of the process.

Judge Margaret Mahoney didn’t issue any ruling Thursday and is expected to hold a hearing in the coming days.

Vote counting in Maricopa County could end as early as Friday or Saturday.

The Arizona Democratic Party, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee also joined the lawsuit on Thursday.

Previously, Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office had publicly posed questions to Maricopa County after saying it had received hundreds of complaints about the use of Sharpies on ballots.

On Thursday, Brnovich’s office issued a letter saying it was satisfied that the mere use of the markers didn’t result in the disenfranchisement of voters.

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