MOHAVE COUNTY — On November 6, the Arizona Court of Appeals dismissed a case brought by Mohave County Supervisor Ron Gould (in his individual capacity), which was brought against Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. The lawsuit argues that Hayes illegally instructed the board regarding an election-related motion.
The Board of Supervisors held a vote in 2023 to require the hand-counting of ballots in elections. Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli, a Republican from Lake Havasu City, appeared before the board to argue that hand tabulation was legal in Arizona. However, on November 19, 2023, Mayes wrote a letter to the board telling them that hand-counting ballots would violate state law and that the motion would, therefore, be illegal.
“We hope you will choose not to violate the law and thus that it will not be necessary to consider whether criminal prosecution is warranted for conducting an illegal hand count,” the letter said. The motion then fail in a 3-2 vote of the board.
Supervisor Gould argued in the lawsuit that the Mayes’ letter was a form of intimidation which changed the outcome of the vote. However, on September 10, 2024, a superior court judge dismissed the case. The Arizona Court of Appeals affirmed the superior court’s dismissal, which determined that Gould did not have standing because he did not bring the lawsuit in his official capacity, but rather on his own.
The Memorandum Decision says he could not “seek relief that can only be sought through collective action of the Board, if it can be sought at all.” The Court of Appeals agreed.
“Because we agree that Gould lacked standing to bring the claim, we affirm,” said Judge Kelly, writing for the decision.
Supervisor Gould told Capitol Media Services that this didn’t make sense. “They keep saying I don’t have standing because she didn’t try to arrest me,” he said. “But she clearly tried to manipulate the outcome of a legislative action.”
Gould also argued that there was a very real threat of criminal prosecution against him, but the Appeals Court rejected this as well.
“His claim does not relate to an existing state of facts, but to a speculative vote the board may or may not take,” Judge Kelly said in the decision.
“As explained above,” the decision continued,” Gould has neither challenged the validity of any election statute nor demonstrated a real, non-speculative threat of prosecution. For all these reasons, the superior court did not err in granting the AG’s motion to dismiss.”
