Michael McClung, a Citizen and Qualified Elector in the State of Arizona, Plaintiff-Appellant v. Hon. Ken Bennett…

Summary

The court affirmed the judgment rejecting a challenge to signatures on a congressional candidate’s nominating petitions. It held that the challenger could not assert new grounds for invalidating signatures at the evidentiary hearing without advance notice, because the change deprived the candidate of a meaningful opportunity to prepare a defense. The court also identified independent grounds supporting affirmance, including the challenger’s failure to prove that enough signatures were invalid and the potentially applicable doctrine of laches.