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SOS Motion for Leave to File Amicus Brief Re Cyber Ninjas

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SOS Motion for Leave to File Amicus Brief Re Cyber Ninjas Clerk of the Superior Court *** Electronically Filed *** T. Hays, Deputy 4/27/2021 8:47:41 AM Filing ID 12821976 1 Mary R. O’Grady, 011434 Joshua D. Bendor, 031908 2 Emma J. Cone-Roddy, 034285 OSBORN MALEDON, P.A. 3 2929 North Central Avenue, 21st Floor Phoenix, Arizona 85012-2793 4 (602) 640-9000 [email protected] 5 [email protected] [email protected] 6 Attorneys for Secretary of State Katie Hobbs 7 8 IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF ARIZONA 9 IN AND FOR THE COUNTY OF MARICOPA 10 ARIZONA DEMOCRATIC PARTY, an No. CV2021-006646 11 Arizona political party and political action 12 committee; and STEVE GALLARDO, a MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE qualified elector, BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE 13 SECRETARY OF STATE Plaintiffs, KATIE HOBBS 14 IN OPPOSITION TO CYBER vs. NINJAS’ MOTION TO FILE EX 15 PARTE AND UNDER SEAL KAREN FANN, in her official capacity as 16 President of the Arizona Senate; WARREN PETERSEN, in his official (Assigned to the Honorable 17 capacity as Chairman of the Senate Daniel G. Martin) Judiciary Committee; KEN BENNETT, in 18 his official capacity as the liaison of the Arizona Senate; and CYBER NINJAS, 19 INC., a Florida corporation, 20 Defendants. 21 Secretary of State Katie Hobbs respectfully moves, pursuant to this Court’s 22 inherent authority, to file the accompanying amicus brief in opposition to Cyber Ninja’s 23 Motion to File Ex Parte and Under Seal. 24 I. Arizona trial courts have the authority to accept amicus briefs. 25 “Courts have inherent power to do all things reasonably necessary for the 26 administration of justice,” Schavey v. Roylston, 8 Ariz. App. 574, 575 (1968), which 27 includes the power to accept amicus brief at the trial court level, Home Builders Ass ‘n 28 1 of Cent. Arizona v. City of Apache Junction, 198 Ariz. 493, 496 n.4 (App. 2000); Ackel 2 v. Ackel, 83 Ariz. 207, 212, 318 (1957). 3 II. Interest of the amicus. 4 As Arizona’s Chief Election Officer, the Secretary is charged with developing 5 rules for ensuring the “maximum degree of correctness, impartiality, uniformity and 6 efficiency on the procedures for early voting and voting, and of producing, distributing, 7 collecting, counting, tabulating and storing ballots.” A.R.S. § 16-452. The Secretary is 8 therefore interested in ensuring that Cyber Ninjas does not damage election equipment, 9 intimidate voters, reveal confidential voter information, or otherwise harm election 10 administration in Arizona. The Secretary is also interested in maintaining transparency 11 in election administration to ensure public trust in the process. To achieve these goals, 12 the Secretary is interested in ensuring that Cyber Ninjas’ audit procedures are publicly 13 available and can be reviewed by experts in election administration, including those 14 retained by the Secretary. 15 III. Accepting the amicus brief will assist the Court. 16 The Secretary is well-positioned to provide the Court with helpful information on 17 the election administration issues relevant to Cyber Ninjas’ Motion to File Ex Parte and 18 Under Seal. 19 IV. Conclusion. 20 The Secretary respectfully requests that the Court grant her motion for leave to 21 file the accompanying brief. A proposed Order is submitted with this Motion. 22 DATED this 27th day of April, 2021. 23 OSBORN MALEDON, P.A. 24 By /s/Joshua D. Bendor Mary R. O’Grady 25 Joshua D. Bendor Emma J. Cone-Roddy 26 2929 North Central Avenue, 21st Floor Phoenix, Arizona 85012-2793 27 Attorneys for Secretary of State Katie Hobbs 28 2 1 THE FOREGOING has been electronically filed this 27th day of April, 2021: 2 COPY of the foregoing e-served through AZTurboCourt 3 this 27th day of April, 2021 and emailed to: 4 Roopali H. Desai D. Andrew Gaona 5 Kristen Yost Coppersmith Brockelman PLC 6 2800 North Central Avenue, Suite 1900 Phoenix, Arizona 85004 7 [email protected] [email protected] 8 [email protected] 9 James E. Barton II Jacqueline Mendez Soto 10 Barton Mendez Soto PLLC 401 West Baseline Road, Suite 205 11 Tempe, Arizona 85253 [email protected] 12 [email protected] 13 Attorneys for Plaintiffs 14 Kory Langhofer Thomas Basile 15 Statecraft PLLC 649 North Fourth Avenue, First Floor 16 Phoenix, Arizona 85003 [email protected] 17 [email protected] 18 Attorneys for Karen Fann, Warren Petersen, and Ken Bennett 19 Alexander Kolodin 20 Christopher Viskovic Kolodin Law Group PLLC 21 3443 North Central Avenue, Suite 1009 Phoenix, Arizona 85012 22 [email protected] [email protected] 23 Attorneys for Cyber Ninjas, Inc. 24 25 /s/Karen Willoughby 26 27 28 3 .
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