PHOENIX – A judge on Wednesday refused to shut down the Republican-led Arizona Senate's recount of 2.1 million ballots from the 2020 election in the state's most populous county but ordered ballot secrecy and voter privacy procedures its contractor is using be made public.
The decision by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Daniel Martin was both a loss and a win for the Arizona Democratic Party, whose lawyers argued the secrecy sought by the Senate put voter privacy at risk.
The Democrats argued the public had a right to know how the ballot count was being conducted and that voter privacy would be irreparably harmed if the process proceeded, at least without knowing how the recount was being conducted.