You Can’t Spell Crazy Without ‘R-AZ’ – The Latest Election Lawsuit (Updated)

Arizona Republicans must be huge fans of the cult classic Spinal Tap, because when it comes to being crazy, they always “turn it up to 11.”

Today’s Exhibit “A” – Mostly anonymous group asks Arizona court to void elections, install it in office:

A group of largely unidentified individuals is asking the Arizona Supreme Court to void the 2018 and 2020 election returns, ranging from governor and some legislators to sheriffs of Pima and Maricopa counties.

And they want the justices then to install them – unidentified individuals – as replacements.

Their often-rambling 26 pages of legal arguments and 116 pages of exhibits contend the equipment used at both elections was not properly certified. The lawsuit claims that makes the election results unreliable and void.

Morons. There are paper ballots – we have receipts!

More to the point, they argue that once the offices are declared legally vacant, that empowers the justices to name replacements. [No, it does not.] And they contend they are the ones who should be put in place, at least until a properly run special election could be called. [Actually, the office would remain vacant.]

It isn’t just the last two statewide elections they contend are flawed. The plaintiffs also want the justices to overturn the 2019 Tucson city election, specifically citing Democratic Mayor Regina Romero’s election [also Phoenix Mayor Kate Galllego’s election in 2018.]

The lawsuit, filed without an attorney, asks the justices to keep their names and personal information secret “due to a reasonable concern for their safety.’’

Oh, you can bet that you crazy mothers are going to be identified, because when the Rule 11 motion is filed against you seeking sanctions for a frivolous lawsuit not warranted by existing law, each of you should be individually sanctioned and personally responsible for payment of attorneys fees and costs.

Instead, it is filed under the banner of “We the People of the State of Arizona, ex rel.’’ That is an abbreviation of the legal term “ex ralatione,’’ meaning their intent is to file on behalf of the state of Arizona.

Only one name is disclosed: Rayana B. Eldan, who lists herself as the “representative voice’’ for the legal filing. The only contact is an email address.

The only response to an email to Eldan in turn referred questions to an email account operated by Daniel Wood, who was a Republican candidate for Congress last year. He did not immediately respond to questions.

But Eldan, in her filing, did tell the justices that if they take up the case the names will have to be disclosed, though she requested that other personal information such as addresses and birth dates remain off limits to public view.

One thing the lawsuit does not seek is a reversal of the state’s 11 electoral votes going to Joe Biden. That likely is beyond the reach of Arizona courts.

* * *

The lawsuit filed at the high court contends state and federal laws about the conduct of elections and the certification of equipment were not followed.

The plaintiffs assert that means all members of the executive branch are holding office illegally, so they can’t be the ones to name replacements if the justices agree. “Therefore it falls to the court to appoint.’’ [No, it does not.]

What the lawsuit ignores is that Chief Justice Robert Brutinel and Justices Andrew Gould and John Lopez themselves were on the 2020 ballot to be retained. And the 2018 ballot included Clint Bolick and John Pelander, the latter having since retired. [Doh!]

There also is no explanation of why, while alleging all results are invalid, only certain elected officials were named as defendants whose offices should be declared vacant.

For example, it seeks the ouster of just four representatives: Republicans Rusty Bowers and Travis Grantham and Democrats Randall Friese and Domingo DeGrazia (whose name they misspelled). And the only senators challenged are Democrats Victoria Steele and Kirsten Engel, here, too, with a misspelled name.

And the list of those statewide officers to be replaced skips over Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich.

One possible explanation is the bid by the challengers to get the justices to install them as replacements.

“Petitioners were not groomed for office nor intended to hold public office, and yet all are competent citizens who meet the constitutional requirements for each position challenged,’’ they state. That suggests they have only plaintiffs who live in certain legislative districts. And the position of attorney general requires that someone be authorized to practice law in Arizona.

They may meet the low-bar qualifications for office, but I would vigorously dispute that they are “competent” (mentally). I have never seen anything as crazy as this frivolous lawsuit in over 30 years of legal practice, and I’ve seen some crazy.

A spokeswoman for Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is named in the filing, said it will “get all the attention it deserves.’’

Translation: A Rule 12(b) (6) motion for failure to state a claim, and a Rule 11 motion for sanctions for filing a frivolous lawsuit not warranted by existing law. Personally, I would file an Answer first, so I can do discovery into these crazy plaintiffs and find out who is really behind this stunt (and paying for it).

The Arizona Republic adds, Group of anonymous AZ voters claim elections invalid; ask to be seated in offices instead (excerpt):

The filing was listed as being from We the People of the State of Arizona.

A news release announcing the filing of the lawsuit directed reporters to contact Daniel Wood, who mounted a losing bid for Congress in 2020, his first political campaign, and Josh Barnett, another losing Congressional candidate.

We the People is also the name of a political group that has been supportive of former President Donald Trump in Arizona. Wood, in an email, said the filing was not made by that group.

Are you sure?

Barnett’s campaign was managed by Shelby Busch, the chairman of the We The People political group.

The court filing is rooted in the fact that the only two companies federally accredited to certify voting machines have not faced a review called for under the federal Help America Vote Act.

The certificate of one company, SLI Compliance, expired in January 2021. The certificate for the other, Pro V&V, expired in 2017.

The co-founder of Pro V&V told the Republic this year that the commission audited the firm in 2018, but never took a final vote on the recommended accreditation. He said he didn’t know why.

However, both companies remain in good standing because each has applied for recertification.

In 2021, the federal Election Assistance Commission told both companies that the renewal process was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Copies of both letters were included in the 154-page filing of evidence and analysis that was attached to the We The People pleading.

The remedy for this oversight, according to the filing, should not be a harsh hand-slapping order by the court, or more regulations. Instead, the group argued, certain people who won elections in those fraudulent elections need to be booted from office.

They should be replaced, the filing suggested, by the supreme court appointing the anonymous members of We The People to the various offices. [Wrong!]

“Our state is in crisis, being run by illegal officeholders across the board,” the filing reads. It asked for urgent action, requesting the state officeholders named to answer within three days of being noticed by the court. [They have 20 days to file an Answer under the Rules of Civil Procedure.] “Usurpers should not exercise powers not legally vested in them for one day more.”

So these unidentified individuals are also against the rule of law.

The pleading seeks to invalidate the election of Gov. Doug Ducey in 2018, as well as those of the Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, State Treasurer Kimberly Yee and the Superintendent of Public Instruction Kathy Hoffman. It also looks to oust four members of the Arizona Corporation Commission, the mayors of Phoenix and Tucson and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer.

The pleading also looked to boot out a bipartisan slate of state lawmakers, including Russell “Rusty” Bowers, the sitting speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives.

The group asked that the court appoint its anonymous members to the seats on a temporary basis, as would be done customarily to fill a role left vacant by death. The members of the group said each would serve in whatever office the court appoints them until the seats can be filled through a special election.

In its filing, the group noted that vacancies for offices have typically been filled by “pedigreed, well known politicians,” but that under statute the offices may be filled by anyone meeting the minimum requirements to hold elected office. And, the filing asserts, those in the group all hurdle that standard, which involves age and number of years residing in Arizona.

The 20 people bringing the action were identified in the lawsuit only by their initials. According to the filing, the persons filed anonymously out of a “reasonable concern for their safety.” The group did acknowledge its members would likely be named should the claim proceed.

UPDATE: Vice News links to the filing page. QAnon Has an Alarming New Plan to Steal Arizona for Trump:

The new lawsuit was filed with the Arizona Supreme Court on Friday, and the plaintiffs in the case sought to have their names redacted. “Petitioners have chosen to redact their names and personal information and utilize initials due a reasonable concern for their safety,” the plaintiffs write in the lawsuit.

But the group does give some indication of who they are by calling themselves “We the People,” a widely used phrase in the QAnon community.

The lawsuit was shared widely on pro-Trump and QAnon message boards and channels over the weekend.

“Hang onto your hats, it’s getting wild in Arizona,” Dave Hayes, a prominent QAnon booster known as “Praying Medic”, told his 61,000 Telegram followers on Sunday. Ron Watkins, the administrator of the message board 8kun who’s been identified as a likely author of many “Q drops,” also shared the news with his 200,000 Telegram followers,  saying the lawsuit “is something to watch carefully as it plays out.”

Feel free to speculate about the initials in comments.

The initials of Wood, the former Congressional candidate and spokesperson for the group, were not listed in the petition, suggesting that Wood was not seeking to temporarily hold a statewide office should the court rule in the group’s favor.

During his campaign, Wood shared several conspiracy theories on Twitter, including some about QAnon, which falsely imagined that Trump was working to dismantle an international child sex trafficking ring run by celebrities and politicians.

A certificate of compliance attached to the filing contained an email address and the name Reyana Eldan. A response to an email sent to the address requested that questions be directed to Wood. “Please, do not disturb us,” read the email, which came from United Together Strong, “since we will not provide you any details to the case while it is still in the court.”

State statute allows an action alleging that someone was improperly holding a public office. But spells out such filings would be brought by the Arizona Attorney General, filing on behalf of the state, or a county attorney.

But, in the filing, the anonymous contingent said that Attorney General Mark Brnovich was himself elected in the 2018 election, which the group considered fraudulent, and therefore should be considered an “alleged inadvertent usurper” who has a conflict of interest.

It is not clear why Brnovich was not listed in the lawsuit as someone whom the group wanted to remove from office.

Statutes allow an individual to petition the court for permission to file an action to remove someone from office should the attorney general or county attorney refuse. In its filing, the group said it didn’t matter that none of its members ran against the sitting officeholder. Each member of the group, according to the filing, has “the right to challenge the usurpers and claim the offices in question.”

The group said that although it was challenging each individual office holder’s seat, it was filing the action en masse to “save the court time and resource.”

In the series of documents where the group laid out its evidence, it asserted it was filing the action six months after the election because it had only “recently completed its research on the widespread problems and were able to put it into words.”

The Arizona Supreme Court, as of Monday, had not responded to the petition.

This is another case of “pack up your shit, and get out of town!” These crazy people are not welcome here in Arizona.

UPDATE: This is essentially what the Arizona Supreme Court told these Yahoos. Arizona court quickly tosses election challenge filed by unnamed plaintiffs:

The Arizona Supreme Court quickly dismissed a bid by 20 unnamed people trying to void the 2020 election returns and put themselves into office instead.

Justice John Lopez, writing Tuesday for the full court, said election challenges are permitted only within five days following the official canvass of the results. That occurred on Nov. 30. This lawsuit was filed May 7.

“Failure of an election contestant to strictly comply with statutory requirements is fatal to his right to have an election contested,’’ Lopez wrote, quoting a 1978 attorney general’s opinion. “The rationale for requiring strict compliance with the time provisions for initiating an election contest is the strong public policy favoring stability and finality of election results.’’

But the justice said even if the plaintiffs had gone to court in time, they could not get what they sought.

“Nothing in the statutes petitioners cite grants them a private right of action to remove office holders and sit in their stead,’’ he wrote.

In fact, Lopez said, the only way to bring such an action is for someone to convince a judge that he or she is lawfully entitled to the office. There is no right of individuals to argue that the person holding the office is not there lawfully.

The order did raise the possibility that Arizonans will find out the names of the 20 individuals who sought to be appointed by the Supreme Court to offices ranging from governor and secretary of state to state legislators and even the mayor of Tucson.

In the order, Lopez said that anyone seeking action from the Supreme Court “must provide their names, addresses and telephone numbers.’’

“He who represents himself has a fool for a client.” – Abraham Lincoln.