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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Democrats Sue Arizona Over Primary Voting Problems

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Monday, April 18, 2016   

PHOENIX - Democrats are suing Arizona elections officials over the March 22 presidential primary in hopes of preventing a November repeat of the problems they say disenfranchised thousands of voters.

The suit was filed in federal court last week by both the national and state Democratic parties as well the Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton campaigns.

Sheila Healy, executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party, says fewer polling places caused some to wait five or more hours to vote, forcing many to give up and go home.

"We have no way of knowing exactly how many voters were disenfranchised," Healy says. "We know it was thousands, we know it was upwards of 20,000, but how much more than that we just have no idea because there's no way to calculate how many people had to leave to go back to work or just couldn't stand that long."

Healy says they are not suing to overturn the results, but are asking the court to monitor the November election plan to ensure that officials adhere to the federal Voting Rights Act.

Election officials in Maricopa County, where most of the problems occurred, say they reduced the number of polling places because of budget cuts.

Healy says both the shortage and locations of polling places were particularly burdensome in black, Hispanic and Native American communities, which had fewer voting locations than predominantly white areas.

"It all comes back to the Voting Rights Act and the fact that because that was gutted, this is why this happened," she says. "These sorts of election days don't happen by accident; they happen because nobody's watching."

In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act that required Arizona and eight other states with a history of discrimination to "pre-clear" election changes.

U.S. Department of Justice is also pursuing a separate investigation into the Arizona primary election.



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