A 2018 voter-registration drive on the University of Arizona campus, by NextGen Arizona, helped students register.

 Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star 2018

PHOENIX — Arizonans will be given another 2 1/2 weeks to sign up to vote in the upcoming election.

In a ruling late Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Steven Logan said the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions on travel and gathering imposed by Gov. Doug Ducey made it difficult for some groups to fulfill their goals of getting more people to register to vote.

So he said that, at least for this year, the Monday, Oct. 5 voter registration deadline does not apply. 

Instead, he is directing the state's 15 county recorders to accept all voter registration applications received by 5 p.m. on Oct. 23.

Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said she will not appeal the decision.

"We need to give the voters clarity,'' she said. "We don't want to prolong this.''

A brief guide to state absentee voting rules and resources for requesting mail-in ballots for the upcoming election.

That, however, may not be the end of it.

Logan allowed the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee to intercede in the case. And their attorney, Kory Langhofer, said late Monday he is still reviewing the ruling with his clients to see if they want to try to get it overturned.

That would be a substantial hurdle in a short period of time, especially if the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sides with Logan and the GOP groups have to seek intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court.

At a hearing earlier in the day Monday, Hobbs' attorney Kara Karlson argued that moving the deadline closer to the election would create problems. She pointed out that early ballots go out Wednesday, Oct. 7, and, presumably, will start to come back to county offices soon after.

Logan brushed that aside, questioning whether the cutoff of 29 days before the election, one of the longest in the country, was "antiquated.''

"The court takes note that 31 other states have later voter deadlines than Arizona,'' he said. In fact, Logan noted, some states allow people to register right up to Election Day.

Langhofer had no better luck with his arguments to Logan that face-to-face voter registration isn't the only way people can sign up to vote.

"Any individual possessing a computer, smartphone or postage stamp may register to vote in a matter of minutes without leaving her home or risking exposure to COVID-19 pathogens,'' he said.

Logan was not impressed.

"This court acknowledges the efforts made by the secretary and the state to make voter registration easier,'' the judge wrote.

"The court is also cognizant of the large population of Arizona that lacks access to the internet,'' Logan continued. "Registering to vote has never been easier for some, though others are not so fortunate.''

Instead, the judge said he was convinced by arguments by about how successful the groups Mi Familia Vota and the Arizona Coalition for Change had been in getting people signed up to vote — at least until March, when the pandemic and the governor's orders changed everything. Those two groups filed the suit that led to the judge's ruling Monday.

Specifically, Logan said the challengers were registering about 1,523 voters a week before the pandemic; that figure dropped to 282 a week during the restrictions.

Mi Familia Vota and the Arizona Coalition for Change's attorney told the judge that once those restrictions were lifted, the number of new registrations returned to pre-COVID levels. That attorney, Zoe Salzman, said if he granted an extra three weeks — she had asked for an Oct. 27 cutoff — the challengers would be able to register another 25,000 voters.

All that, Logan said, means the additional burden on the state and the county recorders of extending the registration deadline is outweighed by the effect on those who would be hurt by leaving it in place.

"The harm suffered is loss of possibly tens of thousands of voter registrations,'' the judge said, adding that it would also interfere with the constitutional rights of the challengers to organize voters. "Plaintiffs' interests outweigh those of the government.''

Hobbs' attorney argued that, if nothing else, Logan should throw out the challenge because of how late it was filed, coming less than a week before Monday's deadline. She said it should have been clear long before Sept. 30, when the lawsuit was filed, that COVID-19 was affecting the ability to sign people up to vote.

But the judge said there was a good reason for Salzman and her clients to wait. He said they needed the data from September — after the restrictions were lifted — to make their case that it is now easier than before to register people, and to provide the estimates of how many more they could sign up if given additional time.

Logan also was not buying the secretary of state's argument that this last-minute change in the long-known deadline to register will cause confusion.

"Voters who are already registered will not need to bother with the new deadline,'' he wrote. "And those voters that were unable to register before Oct. 5 now have extra time.'' 

Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community.