The Daily Agenda: Humans run elections
It's almost always incompetence, not conspiracy ... Just drop out, man ... And Kari speaks for MLK.
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Pinal County’s primary election meltdown stemmed from understaffing, inexperience, a misunderstanding of state law, a lack of training and poor communication.
The county yesterday released a report on an outside review, conducted by former Pima County Elections Director Brad Nelson, of what led to problems in August. The results, which aligned with Rachel’s previous reporting for Votebeat on the compounding issues, weren’t terribly surprising.
To recap, county sent ballots that were missing town elections to tens of thousands of voters, didn’t have enough ballots on Election Day, a polling place opened hours late and poll workers didn’t know who could help them solve it all. The former elections director, David Frisk, didn’t respond to Nelson’s calls for the report after the county canned him.
“Importantly, Mr. Nelson found no evidence of any intentional wrongdoing or misconduct,” the report says. “But error-free elections are difficult to achieve even under the best of conditions. And the conditions surrounding the Primary were obviously not the best.”
Among the review’s findings:
The missing town elections were caused by inadequate proofing of ballots.
The Election Day ballot shortages arose because the previous director did not order enough ballots to comply with state law.
Poll workers weren’t properly trained on equipment or on how to contact people for help, nor were command center employees able to get in touch with the elections department on Election Day to troubleshoot.
The elections department needed more staff to keep up with the size of its electorate, and that staff needed more space to work.
Some of the problems aren’t specific just to Pinal: Issues like turnover, understaffing and inexperience are common to elections departments around the state and country, especially as harassment of election workers increases.
But it’s important that the county took this step — several major problems happened, disenfranchising some voters, and that deserved a transparent investigation, both to confirm how the problems happened and what can be done to prevent them in the future.
Minor problems happen in every election. Just this week, we saw that Cochise County sent out 550 ballots with missing or incorrect ballot propositions, and a database error statewide meant around 1,000 people received federal-only ballots instead of complete ones. Both issues were announced publicly and addressed quickly.
These missteps aren’t a sign of some kind of grand conspiracy — they’re a sign that humans run elections.
But in today’s environment in Arizona, every human error somehow becomes part of a scheme to deny election results. And that thirst for conspiracy has made Arizona one of the top states for threats against elections officials and workers, Axios Phoenix’s Jessica Boehm reports.
Pinal’s report isn’t the end of the work the county will need to do to revamp its elections department and restore community faith, just as a press release from Cochise or the secretary of state announcing minor errors isn’t enough to confirm those errors are fixed.
Transparency goes a long way, though. And voters should reward that transparency, not blow honest errors out of proportion and drive out experienced, quality elections staff.
He’s got a lot going on right now: Parking lot masturbator Randy Kaufman still hasn’t officially pulled out of the race for Maricopa County Community College Governing Board, his opponent Kelli Butler notes, writing that he was still listed on the AZGOP’s “golden ticket” of endorsed candidates as of yesterday. He has to file an official notarized notice of withdrawal, or votes for him will be counted. If he wins and resigns, the Republican-controlled Maricopa County Board of Supervisors would appoint his replacement.
Saving Tom: National Democrats are pumping money into trying to save Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom O’Halleran, who is one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the country following redistricting, Politico reports. The Democratic National Campaign Committee is pumping $680,000 into ads attacking his Republican opponent, Eli Crane, after O’Halleran complained that they’re not doing enough to help him in his now redder district.
Demolish and defund: Republican U.S. Rep. David Schweikert wants to “break up” the FBI and slash its budget following the raid on Mar-a-Lago, he told an activist pretending to agree with the idea.
“You defund the line items and you strip where they spend their money,” he said.
Good luck with that: Secretary of state GOP nominee Mark Finchem sent a cease and desist letter to a host of Arizona news stations that are airing a Democratic Party ad against him declaring he “helped organize” the Jan. 6 riots. He ordered the stations to stop airing the ad by yesterday.
The election to end all elections: Reuters honed in on Arizona’s attorney general race, calling it a usually sleepy contest that could have a huge impact on the 2024 presidential election, considering GOP candidate Abe Hamadeh continues to peddle 2020 fraud conspiracies and would have a say in certifying the next election, or not, if he wins.
That’s two issues: In southeastern Arizona’s 6th Congressional District, Republican Juan Ciscomani thinks the biggest issue facing the district is fentanyl, while Democrat Kristen Engel thinks it’s abortion access and water, and both blame each other for not debating, the Republic’s Tara Kavaler writes.
How do you really feel?: The Center for Biological Diversity is preparing to sue Gov. Doug Ducey over his “ridiculous waste of taxpayer money” for his “shameless publicity stunt” of putting shipping containers on the border as a barrier, saying it jeopardizes corridors for endangered species like the jaguar and ocelot, the Arizona Daily Star’s Danyelle Khmara reports. Ducey still isn’t budging on the containers, despite a warning from the Bureau of Reclamation last week that dumping shipping containers in the desert is illegal.
Drama on aisle five: Daily Star columnist Tim Steller spent his day wandering around Haggen supermarkets talking to employees about the fallout of the national grocery store merger that led Haggen to buy two old Safeways and an Albertsons in Tucson. The selloff was a condition of the merger, but Haggen is flailing as it attempts to sell cotton-candy-flavored grapes for $5 per pound, Steller writes, and the old Safeway employees who had union protections are faring much better than the non-unionized Albertsons workers.
Burning books isn’t as popular as you’d think: Conservative culture war messaging on school issues like critical race theory and gender identity isn’t landing as well as predicted, Politico reports, citing new polling suggesting that while it sells in the Republican base, independents would rather hear about mental health support, pandemic learning losses and school funding.
Public to private pipeline: Since former Arizona Department of Health Services director Cara Christ left the agency for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, five of her fellow high-ranking officials at the agency have followed, with deputy director for public health Carla Berg being the latest, the Republic’s Stephanie Innes reports.
Maybe next time: Cochise County shouldn’t do a hand count of this year’s election because of the “Purcell Principle,” decided back in 2006, that says rules shouldn’t be changed right before an election, the Herald/Review’s Shar Porier reports. And the secretary of state’s office says there’s no part of state law or election procedures that allows for a full hand count, either.
If you don’t like it, tax it: Democratic U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego announced he introduced legislation to heavily tax foreign governments that sell or export water-intensive crops, a shot at the Saudi Arabian company that is getting a sweetheart deal on water to grow and export alfalfa in northwestern Arizona that basically everyone agrees is bad policy but nobody has stopped yet. The Republic’s Emily Sacia has the details.
After GOP gubernatorial contender Kari Lake said that Martin Luther King Jr. would have been an America First Republican if he were alive, King’s daughter, Bernice King, corrected the record.
Separately, the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank pokes holes in Lake’s Black voter outreach, noting that a “Black Voices for Kari” event was attended largely by white people.