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Case 2:20-cv-02321-DJH Document 1 Filed 12/02/20 Page 44 of 53<br />
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right to vote on equal terms, the State may not, by later arbitrary and disparate<br />
treatment, value one person’s vote over the value of another’s). Harper v. Va. Bd.<br />
of Elections, 383 U.S. 663, 665 (1966) (“Once the franchise is granted to the<br />
electorate, lines may not be drawn which are inconsistent with the Equal Protection<br />
Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”). The Court has held that to ensure equal<br />
protection, a problem inheres in the absence of specific standards to ensure its<br />
equal application. Bush, 531 U.S. at 106 (“The formulation of uniform rules to<br />
determine intent based on these recurring circumstances is practicable and, we<br />
conclude, necessary.”).<br />
114. The equal enforcement of election laws is necessary to preserve our<br />
most basic and fundamental rights.<br />
The requirement of equal protection is<br />
particularly stringently enforced as to laws that affect the exercise of fundamental<br />
rights, including the right to vote.<br />
115. The disparate treatment of <strong>Arizona</strong> voters, in subjecting one class of voters<br />
to greater burdens or scrutiny than another, violates Equal Protection guarantees because<br />
“the right of suffrage can be denied by a debasement or dilution of the weight of a citizen’s<br />
vote just as effectively as by wholly prohibiting the free exercise of the franchise.”<br />
Reynolds, 377 U.S. at 555. Rice v. McAlister, 268 Ore. 125, 128, 519 P.2d 1263, 1265<br />
(1975); Heitman v. Brown Grp., Inc., 638 S.W.2d 316, 319, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 3159,<br />
at *4 (Mo. Ct. App. 1982); Prince v. Bear River Mut. Ins. Co., 2002 UT 68, 41, 56 P.3d<br />
524, 536-37 (Utah 2002).<br />
116. In statewide and federal elections conducted in the State of <strong>Arizona</strong>,<br />
including without limitation the November 3, 2020 General Election, all<br />
candidates, political parties, and voters, including without limitation Plaintiffs,<br />
have an interest in having the election laws enforced fairly and uniformly.<br />
117. Defendants failed to comply with the requirements of <strong>Arizona</strong> law and the<br />
Equal Protection Clause and thereby diluted the lawful ballots of the Plaintiffs and of<br />
other <strong>Arizona</strong> voters and electors in violation of the United States Constitution guarantee<br />
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