Pima County, AZ Loses Appeal in RTA Ballot Case: Libertarians Secure Legal Victory for Election Integrity

According to Attorney Bill Risner, the Arizona Supreme Court issued its order today denying Pima County's Petition for Review of the decision of the Court of Appeals. As a result, the Libertarian Party has completed the second half of its legal victory in obtaining prospective relief against rigged elections through the courts. In Arizona, the courts are the last available means to prevent election fraud from reoccurring in the future; the legislative and executive branches have failed to provide adequate remedies. The Court of Appeals reversed Judge Charles Harrington's previous dismissal of the case and remanded the case for further proceedings.

Pima County oversees the elections for that county and enjoined itself in a lawsuit originally designed to determine the predicament of the 2006 RTA ballots, currently in the possession of the County Treasurer's office. The ballots have been preserved because of previous litigation that ultimately uncovered a significant amount of evidence suggesting that the two billion dollar bond transportation measure was rigged.

Originally, Pima County attorneys advised County Treasurer Beth Ford to sue the political parties (those charged with monitoring elections in Arizona) to "get a decision on what to do with the RTA ballots". The original idea was to provide an opportunity for Pima County to destroy the ballots now, before true auditing or forensic examination of the ballots could take place. This idea backfired, however, because two parties in the suit, the Democratic party and the Libertarian party, argued for prospective relief from the courts after then-Attorney General Terry Goddard's woefully inadequate audit of the ballots. In addition to prospective relief, they wanted to see the poll tapes, which are vital auditing tallies at each of the precincts on the night of the RTA election. Terry Goddard had refused to examine them, but saw fit to confiscate them along with the ballots. He then locked them up again with Pima County, causing the other two parties to spend a year in litigation before gaining access. Once they finally got to see the poll tapes, over one-third were missing.

The past body of evidence demonstrating the harm committed by Pima County to the credibility and integrity of its elections was not so easily dismissed by the Supreme Court.

For the citizens of Arizona, the courts were the last hope in providing some measure to ensure that future elections are not rigged. Unfortunately, Judge Harrington threw this case out by accepting the county's argument that criminal activity cannot be discovered in a civil case trial. Despite the absurdity of this argument, the Democratic Party dropped out of the case after Harrington's decision to provide cover for Terry Goddard's ill-fated gubernatorial campaign. However, the Libertarian party was on board from the beginning and elected to continue pursuing the matter in appeal.

Below is a clip that set the tone in the previous trial with Judge Harrington admonishing Bill Risner, the attorney for the Democratic party, for suggesting to the court that it "can't just wash it's hands of this matter". This, of course, took place just before Judge Harrington washed his hands of the matter and let it go to appeal.

J.T. Waldron