Can a 468-page elections manual be too vague when it comes to how to carry out an election?
The Pima County Republican Party thinks so, and it is suing Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes to force him to make some changes.
The county GOP is partnering with The Oversight Project to challenge provisions they argue give election workers “carte blanche” to enforce a provision in the new manual that would allow election workers to remove voters for wearing specific clothing.
Both groups are concerned that “election officials may remove voters or call law enforcement for such actions ‘wearing clothing, uniforms or official-looking apparel intended to deter, intimidate, or harass voters,’ ‘aggressive behavior,’ ‘raising repeated frivolous voter challenges,’ and electioneering that is ‘audible’ inside a voting location.”
“Every Arizona voter deserves clear, consistent rules at the polling place that protect their right to vote free from arbitrary enforcement. Vague standards invite abuse, and when election workers are given unchecked discretion to remove voters or call law enforcement based on unclear or unspecified conduct, no voter or vote is truly safe,” Pima County Republican Chairwoman Kathleen Winn said in a press release.
We took a peek into the elections manual to verify whether their complaints lined up with what is in the 468-page document.
For example, the portion of the manual about what kind of clothing might get a voter kicked out of a polling place actually says this:
“Impersonating a law enforcement officer or otherwise wearing clothing, uniforms or official-looking apparel intended to deter, intimidate, or harass voters (see also A.R.S. § 26-170),” the manual reads on page 215.
During the 2022 election, civic groups went to court after masked and armed Clean Elections USA started “watching” election drop off ballot locations around the clock in Maricopa County.
The legal fight ended with a temporary restraining order against the group, forcing the group not to approach voters at the locations, stay more than 250 away if they were armed and to post a copy of the judge’s order on their website.
Those are the kind of rules that aren’t exactly defined in law, but show up in the Elections Procedure Manual.
This is hardly the first challenge to the state’s election manual by Republicans.
The Arizona Republican statehouse leadership, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club, and Republican National Committee all filed separate challenges a few years ago, with both the AG and AZSOS involved in the litigation.
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled against Warren Petersen and Ben Toma’s lawsuit, dismissed the RNC’s case and some of the Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s complaints were folded into the new manual.
The Oversight Project, a Heritage Foundation-aligned organization, spends most of its time in litigation or filing targeted public records requests focusing on high-profile Democrats.
Recent press releases for The Oversight Project include: “Oversight Project Demands Immediate Release of Biden’s Ghostwriter Interview Tapes and Transcripts,” “Oversight Project Releases Documents that DOJ Turned Blind Eye to Hunter Biden Prostitution-Related Crimes,” and “Oversight Project Calls for Fauci Prosecution Before Deadline, Note Invalid Autopen Pardon.”
Arizona’s Elections Procedures Manual — usually just called the “EPM” — is basically the state’s giant operating handbook for how elections are actually run on the ground.
Think of it as the rules Bible for county recorders, election directors, poll workers, and everyone else administering elections.
As some readers may remember, the AZSOS and the Arizona Attorney General’s Office have clashed on who goes to court on elections manual-related challenges.
For the time being, the Arizona Secretary of State ’s Office is handling the case, and spokeswoman Calli Jones told us that they will always fight to protect voters from intimidation at the polls.
Things are not going well for the first steps of Project Blue.
AMES Construction, a contractor for Beale Infrastructure, was hit with a notice of violation from the Pima County Department of Environmental Quality (PDEQ) for literally kicking up too much dust.
And the solution to dust? Spraying the site with water. Which is a little awkward considering the company was already in hot water over using the wrong water.
Construction equipment kicks up dust at the Project Blue construction site.
A county inspector said in the notice that AMES had “failed to employ dust mitigation practices (i.e. water), which resulted in visible fugitive dust emissions being generated. The fugitive dust was observed crossing property boundary lines.”
This is a good place to remind you that AMES Construction got hit last week for using the city’s water on the 290-acre parcel that is outside city limits. With their construction meter revoked by the city, AMES will need to find a new source of water for construction.
State law allows for fines of up to $10,000 per day, per violation of the permit.
Dust isn’t cheap.
The company has until May 17 to respond to the notice from PDEQ.
A new wrinkle in the Nanos saga: Pima County Assessor Suzanne Droubie says Sheriff Chris Nanos was upset with her when he learned she had shared information about the Nancy Guthrie investigation with the FBI, the Republic’s Stephanie Murray reports. Droubie says the nature of the information should remain private, but the upshot was that it created new leads in the investigation that Nanos apparently felt were adding work for his deputies.
“It seemed like he was very stressed, very frustrated,” Droubie said. “I wouldn't categorize it as yelling, per se, as much as kind of scolding and expressing frustration with all of the leads he was receiving, their obligation to follow up on them, and that my office was actually being more harm than good by providing more leads that they just had to follow up with.”
On the docket: Save the Scenic Santa Ritas filed two lawsuits to undo the sale of 160 acres to Hudbay for the Copper World mining project, the Arizona Daily Star’s Tony Davis reports. The environmental advocacy group sued over the faulty information the State Land Department put in notices about the auction of the 160 acres last month. The second lawsuit wants the Arizona Court of Appeals to take another look at the valuation of the acres, which were sold for $993,000. Save the Scenic Santa Ritas claims the valuation didn’t take into account the value the land holds for Hudbay.
Rep Grijalva: "The problem I see is that this administration makes blanket statements about what's not happening, and we have a portion of our nation that believe them blindly. We have to realize 91% of the people in detention in these concentration camps are in private prisons. So follow the money"
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-05-13T12:10:28.694Z
Border box office: The Nogales International Film Festival is kicking off this week with 110 films from Wednesday through Saturday, the Tucson Sentinel’s Mia Kortight reports. The hook here isn’t just that a border town is hosting a film festival. It’s that many of those films will be projected onto the border wall that divides Nogales, Arizona, from Nogales, Sonora.
Busted at the Trump Store: The Tombstone Marshal’s Office says it arrested a man suspected of arson at the Trump Store on Highway 80, Jillian Bartsch reports for KVOA. The marshal’s office says security footage shows Donald William Rudy driving up to the store and setting a fire in some brush near the store.
Supporting local journalism is an easier — and far more ethical — way to engage in the political process.
More school closures: The Sierra Vista Unified School District Governing Board voted to close Village Meadows Elementary and consolidate it with Pueblo Del Sol Elementary, KGUN’s Alexis Ramanjulu reports. That marks the third school closure in the district since October, which are meant to help cut $5 million from the district’s budget.
The Pakistani headline writer really nailed this one.
A headline for a story about the Iranian soccer training in Tucson for the World Cup starts with “Don’t mention the war.”
Probably good advice. Although we hope the war stays completely out of the picture for the players and they spend a hassle-free few weeks in town as they train at the Kino Sports Complex.
The story also highlights something most people might not even think about. The players are going to see U.S. military aircraft flying in and out of Davis-Monthan, which might look a lot like what they’re seeing at home.