Arizona GOP sues state for ‘hand count’ of ballots as Biden’s lead dwindles

The Arizona Republican party filed a lawsuit against the state on Thursday with the goal of forcing a hand count of ballots by precinct, the party said in a press release.

"The Republican Party of Arizona today filed a lawsuit to enforce a hand count of votes by precinct, not voting center, which is required under the law," the press release reads. "As part of its suit, the Party asked for an order to direct the county to follow state statute."

The party noted that voters are typically "assigned a 'polling place' in their precinct at which to vote." Instead, for the 2020 election, Maricopa County "set up a number of polling places across the county called 'vote centers' where voters from any precinct could vote." According to the Arizona GOP, a hand count by precinct would provide more accurate results for election observers and strategists to study.

Maricopa County is the most populous county in the state of Arizona, containing over half the state's population. Precinct-level data is useful in determining which areas of a county voted for who and by how much, allowing election strategists to more accurately examine the data for future elections. There are 748 precincts in Maricopa County, which would provide a significantly more detailed and precise breakdown of voting trends than data from the 175 "polling centers" from across the county, which theoretically anyone could make use of.

"Arizona voters deserve complete assurance that the law will be followed and that only legal votes will be counted," Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward said concerning the lawsuit.

The suit follows another lawsuit launched by the Republican National Committee on November 7th "alleging that Maricopa County incorrectly rejected votes cast by in-person voters on Election Day." According to the Trump campaign's press release regarding the suit, voters who used machines would sometimes mistakenly overvote, whereby more than one ballot was cast by the same person.

Instead of fixing the error manually, Maricopa County poll workers instructed voters press a green button to fix the error, which erased all of their votes entirely.

County officials estimate that 180 votes may have been affected by the error, with a judge describing the overall evidence as "flimsy" as he refused to allow the evidence to be sealed.

The Biden campaign has maintained a lead in Arizona since election night, although the lead has been continuously dwindling since then. With less than 1% of votes left to count, former Vice President Joe Biden maintains a lead over incumbent President Donald Trump by less than 11,500 votes.

The Trump campaign has filed lawsuits in multiple key battleground states since the election alleging voter fraud. While some of these lawsuits are still being considered and are backed by sworn affidavits, others have been thrown out of court due to lack of solid evidence.