In a recent development, the Arizona Supreme Court has decided to reject a prosecutor’s appeal regarding the state’s fake elector case involving former officials like Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani. This decision mandates that the case be returned to a grand jury for further consideration, impacting the efforts of Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes to advance the case through the legal system.
The Arizona ruling aligns with similar dismissals in states such as Michigan and Georgia, where courts have dismissed cases related to the 2020 election. Additionally, a federal case accusing Donald Trump of conspiring to overturn the election was also dropped by a special prosecutor in late 2024. However, Arizona remains one of the few states, along with Nevada and Wisconsin, where related cases continue to be pursued.
The case in Arizona faced a setback when a Phoenix judge ruled in May that the grand jury had not been provided with the text of the Electoral Count Act. This 19th-century law was central to the defense’s argument, asserting that it allowed multiple slates of electors to be submitted in disputed elections. However, the law was amended in 2022 to clarify that only a single slate of electors may be submitted, with the governor’s approval.
As of now, the case has seen no further progress at the trial court level since mid-May. In the 2020 presidential election, former President Joe Biden secured a win in Arizona by a margin of 10,457 votes.
