In collaboration with the Campaign Legal Center (“CLC”) and other co-counsel, Selendy Gay authored an amicus brief that successfully defended the voting rights of nearly 100,000 Arizonans at risk of being disqualified from participating in upcoming state and local elections.
The brief, filed in the Supreme Court of Arizona on behalf of the San Carlos Apache Tribe and several civic organizations, opposed the Maricopa County Recorder’s request to change voters’ registration status to “federal only”—thus preventing them from voting in state and local elections—based on the state’s administrative error concerning those voters’ citizenship documentation. The brief argued that this proposed voter purge would violate the Arizona and federal constitutions and would confuse voters just before the 2024 general election, creating a disincentive for eligible voters to cast their ballots.
Just two days after the amicus brief was filed, the Arizona Supreme Court granted voters a complete victory, ruling that county election officials could not “disenfranchise voters en masse” because doing so was “not authorized by state law and would violate principles of due process.” The court specifically agreed that this voter purge would be particularly harmful because it would come on the eve of the 2024 general election.
The Selendy Gay team that authored the brief includes founding partner Faith Gay, special counsel Corey Stoughton, and associates Jeff Zalesin, Hannah Miles, Matthew Nussbaum, and Joshua Bean.
Read the amicus brief here.
