The attorney for Rep. Ron Barber’s (D-Az.) campaign on Monday filed a lawsuit with a federal district court seeking to force two counties in Arizona to count the 133 ballots the campaign says were legally cast but have been erroneously disqualified.
Barber trails Republican Martha McSally by only 161 votes in the race to represent Arizona’s 2nd District. The race is so close, an automatic recount will take place next month.
{mosads}The Barber campaign has been arguing that the 133 provisional ballots were wrongly disqualified, and should be included in the vote total before the recount. Last week, the board of supervisors in two counties rejected a request from the Barber campaign to delay certifying the vote in order to allow more time for an investigation into why the provisional ballots were not counted.
The Barber campaign has touted examples of people who said they followed the election rules only to have their ballots disqualified. The campaign argues that in some cases the voters’ addresses weren’t on the voter rolls, the voter accidentally cast a ballot at the wrong polling place, the voter had recently moved, a signature didn’t match or an early mail-in ballot wasn’t received.
“We are talking about 133 Southern Arizona voters who lived up to their responsibility — they registered to vote and then showed up to vote,” Barber’s attorney, Kevin J. Hamilton, said in a statement. “We are asking the court to ensure that every lawful vote is counted. That’s what America is all about.”
Three voters with provisional ballots that didn’t get counted have also joined the lawsuit.
McSally, meanwhile, has declared victory, attended new member orientation and has begun hiring to build out her Capitol Hill staff.
Barring an injunction from the federal district court, the Arizona secretary of State will have has until Dec. 1 to certify the results.