The day after Arizona’s Presidential Preference Election Rep. Jonathan Larkin called for Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell to resign from her position, and on Monday the world saw why he was right as Purcell testified before the Arizona House Elections Committee hearing chair by Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita.
Ugenti-Rita had called the hearing in response to reports that thousands, of people waited in line to vote for hours in Maricopa County’s Presidential Preference Election. Ugenti-Rita won high praise for her fair and patient handling of the often emotional hearing.
Well over 300 people filled the two hearing rooms, while small pockets of activists gathered in the hallways.
Purcell was the first to testify. She immediately began with a lengthy apology which was greeted by groans. Despite the fact that Purcell had provided 200 polling places in 2012, she opted to only provide just 60 ballot collection sites this year.
Purcell said she made the decision based on requests from the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors that she reduce costs. At the time, some supervisors like Chairman Paul Hickman approved the plan after asking Purcell to “be as frugal as you can.” Other supervisors such as Steve Gallardo offered no criticism at all. After Tuesday’s debacle, Gallardo was suddenly very critical.
When she advised the Committee that her office did little to notify voters that there were fewer ballot delivery sites, and voters were not restricted to their normal precinct polling location, Purcell was booed. According to Purcell, her office did not notify the public that they could vote at any of the 60 locations until March 9. She reported that that effort to notify 1.2 million voters of their options only included some news TV newscasts and Facebook post.
Time and time again Purcell tried to have lobbyist Jen Marson, executive director of the Arizona Association of Counties, respond to the legislators’ tough questions. When one Committee member asked Marson if she was a lobbyist, and she responded in the affirmative, she was soundly booed. Ugenti-Rita eventually grew impatient and demanded that the addled Purcell answer the questions. It became very clear that Purcell was incapable of answering almost any of the questions.
When asked by Ugenti-Rita what process was employed to arrive at the number of polling places, Purcell responded, “We have a team.” That response elicited a loud rumble through the crowd.
Rep. Larkin asked Purcell if it was true that some sites ran out of ballots. She dismissed that as rumor. Several people in the room cried out that she was a “liar.”
Purcell claimed that the State only reimbursed the counties at $1.25 per registered voter and that reimbursement rate wasn’t enough to properly run the election. Later, Ugenti-Rita asked Purcell if the counties received that $1.25 for Independent voters. Purcell admitted that the counties did get that amount for all registered voters. Ugenti-Rita pointed out that since independent voters could not participate in the Presidential Preference Election, it was a bit disingenuous to complain about money when the counties were being paid for 35 to 38 percent of the voting population who would not be part of the process.
The public had the opportunity to share their stories with the Committee. Speaker after speaker advised the Committee that they went to the polls only to find that they had been identified as a member of the wrong party. Some speakers were very aggressive, accusatory, and hyperbolic while others were compelling.
The most heartbreaking story was told by the leader of a student organization. She told the Committee that one of the members of her group was a veteran and had just returned recently from one year overseas in combat. The veteran diligently researched the candidates, and decided who to vote for and what party she was going register with and was anxious to vote. On Tuesday the veteran was told that she could not vote as she was registered as an Independent. After much haggling she left the polling station in tears wondering why she had gone to the war zone to fight for the right to vote only to be turned away at the polls by a bureaucrat.
Despite the vitriol, the hearing was productive. Rep. Kelly Townsend won praise for her call for an audit to assess what mistakes were made and what solutions were available. Townsend said that she was attended Ugenti-Rita’s hearing to discover what might have gone wrong. She stated that it is now difficult to truly know where the dysfunction was. It appears multi-faceted and believes that one person should not take the fall. She was concerned about the fact that some people’s voter registrations were changed to a different party.
As a result, Townsend called the Auditor General conduct an audit to determine exactly what happened. Townsend argued that a mere resignation or apology was inadequate and that finding out where the system faltered and what can be done to prevent in the future was the only real answer.
It was not until Rep. Ken Clark appeared to incite the otherwise peaceful but passionate crowd that situation began to deteriorate. Many viewed Clark’s statements as intentionally inflammatory when he implied that ending the hearing in order to convene an already calendared Committee of the Whole session on the House floor was an attempt to silence the people.
In response to Clark’s comments, protestors turned into obstructionists when they tried to prevent the House business from the gallery. As the befuddled Speaker of the House David Gowan tried to gain control of the floor session, a small group of protestors tried to stop the proceedings by shouting him down. Two protestors were removed, marring what was otherwise viewed as a peaceful and productive proceeding.
According to the Arizona Republic, “Ugenti-Rita said after the hearing that she would like to focus on the provision in state law that mandates fewer polling places for the preference election, saying she was at a loss to explain why such a provision exists, and to “determine if problems were due to how the county carried out its policies or whether state law was at fault.”
One Bernie Sanders supporter told the ADI, “Republicans always blame George Soros for everything. They always sound crazy, but we know he is giving a lot of money to Hillary and some of us think he is behind what happened here.”
For her part, Secretary of State Michele Reagan did not want to accept any responsibility. Reagan claimed that her office does not have the statutory authority to advise or direct counties on polling locations or numbers. However, A.R.S. § 16-142(F) states: “If it is determined by the secretary of state that compliance with state and federal regulations would be jeopardized, the secretary of state has the authority to release a county from the number of polling places prescribed by this section.”
Today is Arizona’s Presidential Preference Election! If you have any questions you can go to:…
Posted by Arizona Secretary of State on Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Last Tuesday, Reagan posted to Facebook: “Today is Arizona’s Presidential Preference Election! If you have any questions you can go to:…” The link she provided sent “friends” to a page that made absolutely no mention of the fact that only members of the Republican, Democrat, and Green parties could vote.