PHOENIX — Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is defending his decision to approve renaming the No Labels Party as the Arizona Independent Party, even as a lawsuit claims he overstepped his legal authority and could confuse voters.

Fontes formally approved the renaming of the No Labels Party to the Arizona Independent Party in October, and the change went into effect on Monday.

The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission (ACCEC), a nonprofit organization of voters, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, arguing that state law allows the secretary of state to recognize new parties but not rename existing ones.

“I’m looking to the law, and I’m looking to this group of people who have freely assembled, and they want to change the name of their party, and they said, ‘We’ve followed all of our

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