Arizona: Voting rights advocates see little change, but hope for future | Cronkite News

Arizona may have made headlines in 2016 when voters had to wait hours in the sun just to vote in the presidential preference election, but advocates in the state said problems with voting are nothing new to them. “Since we’ve been addressing it since 2012, there has been little to no action in actually fixing anything,” said Viri Hernandez, director at the Arizona Center for Neighborhood Leadership. Hernandez pointed to a mix-up on Spanish ballots in 2012 on ballot due dates, and then-Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell’s comment last year that voters turning out were partly to blame for polling lines being so long as just two examples of what she sees as systemic problems. Hernandez was in Washington this week with voting rights advocates from around the nation to take part in the America Votes State Summit, where voting advocates and mostly liberal groups planned strategy to reverse the “shocking” 2016 election results. The sessions were largely closed to the press, but Arizona advocates had plenty to say afterwards.

Arizona: Tucson asks U.S. Supreme Court not to overturn its unique council-election system | Arizona Daily Star

Lawyers for Tucson are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to spurn a bid by Republican interests to kill the city’s unique system of electing council members. In new legal briefs, City Attorney Mike Rankin said there’s nothing inherently unconstitutional about having the six council members nominated by ward but then having a citywide general election. He said it ensures that each area of Tucson is represented and yet requires council members to pay attention to voters in the other five wards. “The city’s election system allows both ward and citywide electorates a voice, and also provides benefits to both,” he argued. In a ruling last year, the full 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the practice.

Arizona: State Election Director denies demanding voters be purged | Arizona Capitol Times

A top staffer at the Arizona Secretary of State denied accusations made by county recorders earlier this week that the office ordered voter registrations to be cancelled without proper documentation. In a letter delivered Jan. 23, the county recorders described their relationship with the Secretary of State’s office as “dire,” singling out “verbal abuse,” neglected duties and demands to cancel voters came without proper documentation. Secretary of State Michele Reagan asked for an internal accounting of the accusation that her office improperly sought to have some voters removed from the rolls.

Arizona: County recorders call relationship with Secretary of State ‘dire’ | ACIR

Arizona’s 15 county recorders this week delivered a letter to Secretary of State Michele Reagan in which they said communication between their offices and hers is “in a dire state” because state Election Director Eric Spencer has been “ineffective and disrespectful.” The county recorders said in the Jan. 23 letter that Spencer has been verbally abusive, “rude” and “dismissive” of questions posed to him by the recorders and their staffs. In one instance, they wrote, Spencer said the recorders were “incompetent,” and that he has refused to answer “questions of critical importance posed by those same elections officials.” The recorders also said Spencer has neglected statutory obligations and created legal and ethical conflicts with his demands that recorders remove voters from registration rolls.

Arizona: Legislator takes aim at University students in first week of session | The State Press

The Arizona State Legislature drew statewide backlash last week when Republican State Representative Bob Thorpe filed two bills aimed at changing the voting rights and cutting social justice classes for college students in Arizona. House Bill 2260 would in effect disallow any student living in a “dormitory address or other temporary college or university address,” to use that address to register to vote. Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes, who oversees voter registration in Maricopa County, said that the bill is both unconstitutional and unenforceable. “It violates the First Amendment, it violates the due process clause and it violates the equal protections clause,” Fontes said. “I would think a constitutional conservative like Thorpe would have looked at these things.” Fontes, who made student polling locations and voting rights priorities in his campaign, said that he would stay committed to those goals and staunchly opposed the bill. “This is disenfranchisement on its face,” he said. “It treats one particular class of eligible voter different then another eligible class of voters.”

Arizona: Maricopa County hires team to hack into election system | The Arizona Republic

Computer experts are attempting to hack into the Maricopa County election system at the invitation of Recorder Adrian Fontes as he seeks to boost security in the wake of cyberattacks on national political groups in the 2016 election. Fontes, who took office Jan. 1, said one of his first actions was to hire a “white hat” hacker team from a leading system supplier to partner with the Maricopa County Office of Enterprise Technology to test for internal and external security weaknesses. “My first priority is to provide my fellow citizens with reliable, efficient, safe and secure elections,” Fontes said in a written statement announcing the operation.

Arizona: Secretary of State floats election law overhaul; Pima County incredulous | ACIR

Secretary of State Michele Reagan has begun circulating a memo detailing a proposed overhaul of the laws governing virtually every aspect of how elections are conducted in Arizona, from data protocols and recount procedures, to “sore loser” candidates and voter fraud investigations. Matt Roberts, a spokesman for Reagan’s office, said the proposal only begins the conversation about ways election practices can be improved. He said there are two main motivations to Reagan’s proposition: digitizing records and processes, and fixing issues that have come up in recent years. Parts of the proposal, such as requiring counties to report election data in uniform formats, would lead to faster and more detailed results for the public on election night, Roberts said.

Arizona: Experts say Arizona the worst for electoral integrity | The Arizona Republic

Arizona was ranked worst in the country for electoral integrity in a recent postelection survey of political scientists. The Perceptions of Electoral Integrity survey asked political experts about elections in the states where they live in order to measure their perceptions of how well or poorly their state adhered to international standards of conduct before, during and after an election. Although it measures perceptions of electoral integrity, as opposed to actual electoral integrity itself, the methodology is widely trusted and used to compare electoral performance around the world. The concern is that just the perception of electoral fraud or corruption, even without actual proof of fraud, could lead to a loss of public confidence in the voting process.

Arizona: Could Automatic Voter Registration Become Law In Arizona? | KJZZ

About 75 percent of registered voters cast a ballot in the November election last month in Arizona. But, that doesn’t take into account the number of eligible voters who are actually registered. Add in that only about two-thirds of people who could vote register and, suddenly, voter-turnout numbers can seem pretty low. One way that some states are hoping to get more people to participate in elections is by automatically registering them to vote. “Some states — Alabama, California, Connecticut, Oregon, Vermont and West Virginia — have created new laws that say anyone that’s eligible that’s in our motor-vehicle database will automatically be a registered voter, if they’re not already in the system,” according to Alberto Olivas, executive director of the Congressman Ed Pastor Center for Politics & Public Service at Arizona State University. “And then those people will get a notice, and they can decide to opt out of the system.”

Arizona: Democrats cry foul over Maricopa County election officials’ inaction | Associated Press

The state Democratic Party on Monday slammed Maricopa County election officials who decided not to try to verify questionable signatures on some early ballots. Spencer Scharff, the party’s director of voter protection, said the county recorder’s office wasn’t following rules outlined in the state election procedures manual. That manual said election officials must make a reasonable effort to contact early voters if there are questionable signatures before discarding their ballot. “They’re clearly violating that requirement by failing to call them,” Scharff said. “We’re doing everything we can to encourage the county to simply follow the law.”

Arizona: Phoenix election official dumped for long voter lines | Associated Press

The county official who took the blame for hours-long lines that plagued this year’s presidential primary in Arizona was dumped from office amid widespread frustration among voters over the bungled election. Republican Helen Purcell conceded on Tuesday to Democrat Adrian Fontes in the Maricopa County recorder’s race. The county was still tallying ballots but she was nearly 13,000 votes behind when she acknowledged the loss. Purcell, 81, was first elected in 1988 and never before challenged for re-election while serving seven four-year terms as county recorder. Her decision to cut the number of polling places for the March election caused voters to wait more than five hours to cast their ballots. Purcell and Secretary of State Michele Reagan were blamed for the foul-up, but Purcell became the most public face for the decision.

Arizona: Supreme Court Says Arizona Can Ban ‘Ballot Harvesting,’ | The New York Times

The Supreme Court issued an order on Saturday allowing Arizona to enforce a law banning so-called ballot harvesting, in which others collect voters’ completed absentee ballots and submit them to election officials. The court’s two-sentence order stayed a ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that would have temporarily blocked the law. The justices gave no reasons for reviving the law, but the court often views last-minute changes to election procedures with disfavor. Arizona allows voters to submit absentee ballots by mail or in person. The challenged law, enacted this year, barred letting others collect the ballots, with exceptions for family members and caregivers. According to officials in Arizona, there are similar laws in 26 other states and nearly identical ones in “14 other states that make mass ballot collection in some form a felony.”

Arizona: US appeals court says Arizona precinct voting rule stands | Associated Press

A federal appeals court panel rejected a challenge Wednesday night to an Arizona election law that throws out ballots cast by voters who go to the wrong precinct. The 2-1 opinion from a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel turned away a legal challenge mounted by Democrats. Lawyers representing the state and national Democratic parties said Arizona throws out more out-of-precinct ballots than any other state and that minorities are more likely to be affected. A federal judge in Phoenix rejected the challenge last month, ruling that the state has a valid reason not to count such votes because different races are on ballots in different precincts. The judge also said that Democrats haven’t shown that minorities were affected more than white voters. Democrats appealed, and two of the appeals court judges agreed with the lower court and rejected the challenge, which cited Voting Rights Act and Constitutional violations.

Arizona: Secretary of State Reagan Warns Against Voter Intimidation Efforts | Arizona Politics

As the political parties fight in court about possible plans by Trump supporters – as well as White nationalists – to station people outside many polling places on Election Day next Tuesday, Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan this afternoon issued a comprehensive “Guidance” about what constitutes punishable “voter intimidation.” The 2 1/2 page document addresses the use of uniforms, the display of weapons, taking photos or video, and many other possible intimidation methods. When asked about what prompted the Guidance, Secretary of State Communications Director Matt Roberts tells Arizona’s Politics that “The Secretary and our office has been getting a number of emails/calls social media conversations from people concerned with the General Election. She felt it appropriate that she remind people of the rules, laws on the books.”

Arizona: Court considers law on disqualifying certain provisional ballots | Tucson News Now

There’s a court battle going on over Arizona’s law that allows provisional ballots cast in elections to be disqualified, or thrown out. Voters might have to use a provisional ballot if their voter registration is not up to date or they lost their early ballot or they go to the wrong polling place. A federal appeals court is deciding whether to force the state to count provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct. In Arizona voters have to vote in the precinct assigned to their residential address. The three-judge panel heard arguments Wednesday, Oct. 26. A lawyer for state and national Democrats told the panel nearly 11,000 voters in Arizona had their provisional ballots disqualified in the last presidential election because they voted in the wrong place, and that it affects minority voters more often than not. The Democrats said throwing out the ballots disenfranchises voters and is unconstitutional. The state argued that counting the ballots would be unfair to candidates in local races.

Arizona: Appeals court considers blocking Arizona ballot-collection law | Capitol Media Services

Federal appellate judges on Wednesday questioned assertions by attorneys for the state and its Republican Party allies that a new law outlawing “ballot harvesting” does not target minorities. Assistant Attorney General Karen Hartman-Tellez argued that the law, approved earlier this year, is a legitimate — and legal — effort by the Republican-controlled legislature to ensure the integrity of elections. She conceded that making it a felony to collect the ballots of others might result in some inconvenience. But Hartman-Tellez said there was no proof that minorities would be harder hit.

Arizona: Voting wars continue over ballot collection law in Arizona | CNN

Arizona Democrats will ask a federal appeals court on Monday to put on hold a state law that criminalizes the practice of ballot collection, arguing that the law could disenfranchise thousands of voters — particularly in minority communities — that rely upon neighbors and activists to collect and hand deliver early ballots. Last month a federal judge declined to enjoin the law for now ruling that the challengers had not shown that it would “disparately impact” minority voters. “Deference to the judgments made by Arizona’s elected representatives in exercising their constitutionally prescribed authority to regulate elections is, therefore, required,” Judge Douglas L. Rayes of the the US District Court for the District of Arizona said. But in an unusual order, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday agreed to hear an expedited appeal with briefs due from both sides by close of business Monday. The court has scheduled oral arguments for October 19. “This litigation is a good example of the clash between Republican elective operatives who say they are trying to root out voter fraud and Democratic leaning activists who are trying to open access to the ballot as much as possible,” said election law expert Joshua A. Douglas at the University of Kentucky College of Law.

Arizona: Judges deal double blows to Democrats’ voting challenges | Associated Press

Federal judges dealt double blows to Democrats’ efforts to challenge Arizona election laws Tuesday, with an appeals court panel refusing to block a new law prohibiting get-out-the-vote groups from collecting early ballots and a U.S. District Court judge declining to order Arizona to count votes cast in the wrong precinct. The rulings came in different parts of the same lawsuit filed by Democratic voters and national and state Democratic groups, along with presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. It was filed after major problems with long lines during the March presidential primary election and the signing of the new ballot collection law by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. In the ballot collection portion, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to overturn a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Rayes that kept the new law in effect. It means people who collect ballots for delivery to the polls in most cases face a felony charge.

Arizona: After hack, Arizona working to keep its elections database secure | CBS

The hacking attempt on Arizona’s voter database started in rural Gila County when an elections worker opened an email attachment. Michelle Reagan, Arizona’s secretary of state, said it was malware meant to attack servers holding the voter information of 4 million people. Reagan was alerted by the FBI, and experts believe the Russian government is to blame. She said she was shocked and dismayed when she first heard about the breach. “We’ve never had to worry about foreign invaders coming in and trying to mess with our confidence and our election system,” Reagan said.

Arizona: Federal judge: Arizona counties don’t have to tally out-of-precinct votes | Capitol Media Services

A federal judge rejected a bid by Democrats to force counties to tally the votes of people who show up at the wrong polling place. In his ruling late Tuesday, Judge Douglas Rayes acknowledged that Arizona has a history of discrimination in voting practices. But Rayes said challengers, led by the state and national Democratic parties, failed to show that the current restrictions affect minorities any more than the population as a whole. This is the second defeat for the Democrats. Rayes had earlier refused to block the state from enforcing its new law making it a felony for individuals to collect early ballots from others and bring them to the polling place. On Tuesday the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to disturb that ruling.

Arizona: Judge rejects hold on Arizona ‘ballot harvesting’ law | The Arizona Republic

Democrats are taking their fight to block a controversial voting law to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, after a federal judge Friday denied their request for an injunction. U.S. District Court Judge Douglas Rayes rejected a request from state and national Democrats to suspend Arizona’s law that bans ballot collection. He found the Democrats did not demonstrate that the new law would hurt minority voters more so than others, and said it would have a minimal effect, if any, on broader voting rights. That means that in the Nov. 8 election, as it was in the Aug. 30 primary, people who attempt to take another person’s mail-in ballot to elections officials will be subject to penalties.

Arizona: Native Americans Still Face Obstacles to Voting Access | Arizona Public Media

Native Americans won the right to vote in Arizona in 1948. But open access to the polls didn’t come until 1976, when a U.S. Supreme Court decision forced state officials to drop a literacy requirement. While access here has improved since then, Native voters in Arizona and around the country still face many unique barriers when trying to cast their ballots. Laura Riddle doesn’t have a standard address, so GPS doesn’t do much to help find her. A freeway exit number and basic directions to a convenience store are more reliable. Riddle lives on the Gila River Indian Community, which sits just south of the Phoenix metro area. Despite the community’s general proximity to the city, the reservation spans almost 600 square miles, much of it rural. And just like Riddle, many residents here don’t have an address. “We’re used to giving directions out here by landmarks,” she said. “There’s a tree. There’s two trees, there’s a big bush with purple flowers on it.”

Arizona: Democrats seek extension of voter-registration deadline | The Arizona Republic

Democrats are asking county elections officials to extend the voter-registration deadline so it doesn’t fall on the Columbus Day holiday, when state and federal offices will be closed. In letters to all 15 county elections officials, party officials are asking for a one-day extension, to Oct. 11. They cite a state law that allows the deadline to be moved when it falls on a holiday, and cite a 58-year-old attorney-general opinion that reinforced that practice. In a practical sense, they said, not extending the deadline could deter would-be voters who attempt to register at state motor-vehicle offices or by mail. Those offices are closed Oct. 10, the published registration deadline. “You can’t get a piece of mail postmarked when the post office is closed,” said Spencer Scharff, voter-protection director for the state Democratic Party.

Arizona: Maricopa County settles part of lawsuit from presidential primary | The Arizona Republic

Maricopa County elections officials satisfied concerns from Democrats that there will be enough polling locations for the Nov. 8 election, leading to a settlement on one part of a federal lawsuit stemming from March’s presidential preference election. The settlement was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. Arizona minority voters, along with state and national Democratic Party officials and the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, sued in April. It came weeks after long lines for the March 22 presidential preference election frustrated voters and prompted many to abandon the long waits and not vote.

Arizona: Ballot ruling to come Friday in Arizona’s 5th District race | Associated Press

A judge will decide Friday whether to allow hundreds of contested ballots to count in the hotly contested Republican primary in a Phoenix-area congressional district. Unofficial results from the Aug. 30 primary for the 5th Congressional District had state Senate President Andy Biggs leading former internet executive Christine Jones by nine votes out of some 85,500 votes cast in the four-way race. Jones’ campaign contends Maricopa County should have counted votes from at least 300 eligible voters who cast ballots that weren’t counted for various reasons. A lawyer for Biggs argued that Jones was creating chaos and disruption in an attempt to win the election.

Arizona: Tucson’s hybrid city elections upheld by full 9th Circuit | Tucson Sentinel

A federal appeals court reaffirmed Tucson’s hybrid city election process Friday, rejecting Republican claims that it violates the one-person, one-vote principle. The full 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the system for municipal elections – in which council members are first nominated by party in ward races and then run at-large – is allowed under the federal system that “permits ‘innovation and experimentation’” that can “vary greatly across the country.” “Tucson’s hybrid system represents a careful, longstanding choice, twice affirmed by voters, as to how best to achieve a city council with members who represent Tucson as a whole but reflect and understand all of the city’s wards,” Judge Marsha Berzon wrote in the court’s unanimous opinion.

Arizona: Judge To Decide Whether Ballots Cast At Wrong Polling Place Should Count | KJZZ

A federal judge in Phoenix is deciding whether in the upcoming election the state must count provisional ballots differently than in the past. Under the federal Help America Vote Act, if a voter shows up at a polling place to vote, but their name is not on the list, poll workers must offer that voter a provisional ballot. In Arizona, during elections that require voters to vote in an assigned precinct, a state law prevents ballots cast in the wrong precinct from being counted. Even if a voter goes to a polling sites a few blocks away from their assigned one, the ballot will be disqualified. In the 2012 presidential election, almost 11,000 provisional ballots in Arizona were tossed because the voter cast the ballot at the wrong precinct.

Arizona: Santa Cruz County Elections Office wants new machine after primary night glitch | Nogales International

The county’s elections chief said she’ll insist on a new ballot-tabulating machine for the November general election after recently purchased equipment malfunctioned and caused an hours-long delay in tabulating the results of Tuesday’s primary. With several candidates and their supporters looking on anxiously, a technician attempted to fix a high-speed scanner that was being used to count ballots Tuesday night after it jammed. “We thought it would be an easy fix, get it up and running and be able to continue,” said County Elections Director Melinda Meek. “Obviously it wasn’t a quick fix. (The technician) had to take the thing apart.” Meek said the machine jammed while elections workers were running early mail-in ballots through it. The snafu forced officials to resort to using two hand-fed backup machines that could only process one ballot at a time. As a result, the first preliminary election results that included just early ballots were announced at approximately 10:30 p.m., several hours after they were expected. Updated results that included ballots cast at the polls came an hour later.

Arizona: Rollout of Arizona’s new election results website flops | Arizona Daily Sun

The Arizona secretary of state’s website repeatedly froze and crashed during the Tuesday primary, renewing criticism of the office over its struggles in running state elections. The website crash prevented the public from easily accessing primary election results and led to a host of comments blasting the office on Twitter. The new site was touted by Secretary of State Michele Reagan as a replacement for a glitch-prone website that also led to reporting delays in the 2012 and 2014 election cycles. Reagan spokesman Matt Roberts said early Tuesday evening that the office was prepared and had backup plans in place for the new system. A chagrined Roberts said late Tuesday that “we’re not completely sure as to what’s causing some of the slowness in the reporting.”

Arizona: State elections department to increase computer security | Arizona Daily Star

State election officials are looking at an additional level of security after fears earlier this year that the voter database had been hacked. Matt Roberts, spokesman for the secretary of state’s office, said Monday the agency wants to implement “two-factor authentication” before anyone can get access to the list of registered voters. That would involve users providing more than just the sign-in name and password now required. The move follows what Roberts said was the FBI telling state officials nearly two months ago there was a “credible threat” that the database had been compromised. He said the state took the database offline and then examined it to see if any malware had been uploaded into it. “We were unable to find any of that,” Roberts said.