A federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit challenging Arizona’s maintenance of its voter registration lists, ruling that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate any concrete harm.
In a unanimous opinion issued Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found that two Arizona voters, Scot Mussi and Steven Gaynor, did not have standing to bring the case. The judges upheld a lower court’s ruling, concluding the claims relied on hypothetical risks rather than actual or imminent injury.
The lawsuit, filed in June 2024 against Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, alleged that poorly maintained voter rolls could allow ineligible voters to cast ballots, potentially diluting legitimate votes. The plaintiffs pointed to estimates that between 500,000 and 1.2 million ineligible names remained on the rolls.
The panel rejected that argument, stating the plaintiffs failed to connect alleged instances of voter fraud to list maintenance issues or show any direct impact on their own votes. “Their injury is entirely hypothetical,” the court wrote, adding that claims of a “heightened risk” of future harm were not sufficient to establish standing.
