A judge for Arizona’s Superior Court of Maricopa County [official website] on Wednesdaydismissed [ruling, PDF] a lawsuit alleging fraud and other grievances from the primary elections in Arizona for failure to state a claim for which relief can be granted. The plaintiff, John Brakey, alleged that the primary voting in Arizona was hampered with problems including a limited number of polling places, extended wait times and issues with the ballots. The plaintiff alleged that votes could have been tampered with and urged the court to order a new election. The court found that even with the evidence being taken as true, Brakey could not prove his allegations and meet the burden to prevent a dismissal:

Throughout the case, plaintiff conceded that he likely could not show that the allegations, if true, would have changed the outcome of the election. However, plaintiff also did not completely concede that point. Indeed, at the conclusion of the evidentiary hearing, after the testimony by Ms. Tunnell from MCED, plaintiff suggested that alleged fraud and misconduct might have changed the allocation of delegates to the national convention by congressional district based on the Arizona Democratic Party’s bylaws. However, even if adequately proven, it was not proof that it would have changed the outcome of the election itself.

Brakey does not plan to appeal [Arizona Republic report].

Issues with voting have plagued Arizona in recent months. The Supreme Court in April unanimously upheld [JURIST report] an Arizona commission’s decisions regarding the redistricting of voting districts in the state. The claim from Republicans in the state was that the reapportionment of votes resulted in a discriminatory distribution favoring the Democratic Party. In the same month the US Department of Justice notified [JURIST report] Maricopa County officials that it would investigate the issues voters in Arizona’s most populous county faced during the March 22 primary election.