TL/DR –
An election challenge against Gilbert council candidate Noah Mundt has been dismissed due to being filed late. Mundt will remain on the ballot for one of the two open seats on the Gilbert Town Council. The complaint, which alleged signature fraud and was filed by Michael Webb, a former committee precinct member of the Republican Party’s Legislative District 14, was dismissed on procedural grounds by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge.
Gilbert Council Candidate Noah Mundt Overcomes Election Challenge
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge dismissed an election challenge against Gilbert council candidate Noah Mundt on procedural grounds last Friday. The amended complaint alleging signature fraud was deemed to have been filed too late.
Mundt remains in the race for one of the two open seats on the Gilbert Town Council. The judge concluded that the timeline was too tight to hear the case and still comply with Arizona state law.
“I’m relieved that the challenge to my candidacy was dismissed today,” Mundt wrote in a statement. “This legal action unjustly targeted a high school student involved in our signature collection.”
Michael Webb, a Gilbert resident and former committee precinct member of the Republican Party’s Legislative District 14, originally filed the complaint against Mundt on April 15. He challenged 503 signatures on Mundt’s nomination paperwork.
The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office found only 278 signatures to be invalid, leaving Mundt with 1,024 valid signatures—more than the 1,000 required to qualify for the July 30 ballot.
Webb amended his complaint alleging that an 18-year-old paid to gather signatures had forged a significant number of them.
Without those signatures, Mundt would not have met the threshold to qualify for the ballot. Webb enlisted two well-known attorneys, Tim LaSota and Jennifer Wright, to represent him in the challenges.
Mundt’s attorney Brett Johnson filed a motion to dismiss the challenge, arguing that the new claim was outside of the 10-day timeframe outlined in state law and prevented them from preparing a rebuttal.
Johnson argued in court that allowing the trial on the amended complaint would disrupt the process for election challenges. In response, LaSota argued that the timing was merely an inconvenience, not an impediment, for Mundt’s defense.
LaSota argued that the amended complaint should be heard because the signature gatherer “should not be entitled to the presumption of validity.” He intended to petition the court to invalidate all the signatures collected by one circulator.
In the end, the judge agreed with Mundt’s lawyers to dismiss the case. The judge did not agree that duplicated signatures invalidated all the other ones submitted by the teenager.
An option to appeal the decision remains open. LaSota did not indicate to the Arizona Republic if Webb plans to appeal the decision to the Arizona Supreme Court.
Webb filed two other challenges against mayoral candidate Natalie DiBernardo and council candidate Kenny Buckland which he later filed notices of dismissal. He was also part of former mayoral candidate Shane Krauser’s election committee and donated to his campaign.
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