The rocky relations between Secretary of State Michele Reagan and Arizona’s county recorders continue. The flash point: Voter registration. Last fall, and again in early February, her office tapped into the voter-registration databases run by Maricopa and Pima counties. The two large counties were perplexed — and more than a little peeved. They said this had not happened since a test on the system in 2010. Plus, Reagan should have forwarded whatever request for information her office was researching to them, instead of just logging in, Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes and Pima County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez said. And to add insult to injury, they complained they couldn’t get answers on why Reagan’s office was, in their view, snooping in their data.
When asked about this by The Arizona Republic, Reagan was livid. She said her office was responding to a request for information from Project Vote, which has sued the state and county elections officials over access to voter-registration lists. And, she added, as secretary of state, she has the right to deal with voter-registration information.
But it seems Reagan wanted someone to check her work. In March, she asked the Attorney General’s office for a a legal opinion about who can access different types of data, noting conflicting standards in federal and state laws.
Full Article: Secretary of State Reagan to attorney general: Is what I did legal?.