The fight to count some, if not all, of the 479 rejected provisional ballots cast in Congressional District 2 continues here in Pima County, with all indications it is headed for the courtroom. Legal teams representing the Ron Barber and Martha McSally campaigns have flooded the Pima County Recorder’s Office, making more than two dozen requests for public documents. Attorneys are also calling those who cast provisional ballots, asking them to offer up their stories that led to their ballots being rejected, and to sign declarations, likely to be used in future legal proceedings. Both campaigns have refused to discuss their legal strategies. But the requests seem to have set the stage that both sides are at least preparing to file legal challenges in Pima County. The requests have created a near constant din in County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez’s offices as her staff moves boxes, shuffles paperwork and feeds copiers to comply with the mounting requests.
The response to one request, Rodriguez said, barely fit into five office boxes, containing thousands of pages of precinct registers from every precinct in Congressional District 2 inside of Pima County. Rodriguez — a 20-year veteran of the office — says she doesn’t have a guess as to why the McSally legal team is asking for the registers, since there is no way to tie them back to the ballots cast weeks ago.
While her staff may be worn out from the attention in one of the few national races still undecided weeks after the general election, a growing number of angry residents have been calling her office. Unsolicited calls from both campaigns asking locals whom they voted for and informing them — sometimes incorrectly — that their ballots were not counted have led to a number of complaints, Rodriguez said.
Full Article: Barber-McSally ballot flight unleashes flood of records requests.
