Arizona voters have grown accustomed to Secretary of State Michele Reagan’s use of taxpayer dollars to promote herself, but her most recent advertising blitz has raised serious questions. According to an article by Randy Soto in The Western Journal, ads featuring Reagan are showing up in Mexico.
Those ads are encouraging people to register to vote.
“A registered Arizona voter spending time in Mexico noticed the ad pop up on his computer, along with other local ads, indicating the ad providers clearly recognized the computer’s IP address was outside the country,” according to Soto’s report.
Reagan’s tenure as Secretary of State has been shrouded in controversy. From forwarding the false narrative that the Russians had hacked Arizona’s voting system to refusing to cooperate with President Donald Trump’s Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, Reagan has engaged in bizarre behavior.
In October 2017, an independent investigation found that under the leadership of Reagan, 200,000 voters were denied information in a timely manner about propositions 123 and 124 which appeared on ballots during the 2016 Special Election.
Phoenix attorney Michael T. Morrissey prepared the report after Attorney General Mark Brnovich found that Reagan’s office had broken the law. Brnovich refused take action to secure the voters’ right to information by allowing the Special Election to continue.
Arizona law requires that the Secretary of State distribute publicity pamphlets in advance of early voting in certain elections, including elections in which amendments to the Arizona Constitution have been put to the voters.
The Secretary of State’s office delayed disclosure to county election officials and the public regarding the situation for at least several days, during which time ballots were being completed and returned by voters. As a result, voters were denied the opportunity to find information about the propositions elsewhere.
The report found that the failure to deliver enough pamphlets in a timely manner “demonstrates poor or incompetent execution of the task.”
In March 2017, Evan Wyloge with the Arizona Center For Investigative Reporting revealed that after having “campaigned on making it easier for people to see how money flows into political campaigns,” Reagan spent $494,000 in 2015 and 2016 to create a new campaign finance reporting website that never saw the light of day.”
According to Wyloge, Reagan then asked the “the Citizens Clean Election Commission to pay $200,000 of an estimated $462,000 cost to develop a new campaign finance website, plus $50,000 per year in maintenance.”
Starting tomrrow: Find some common grounds at the @AZCapitolMuseum coffee shop! pic.twitter.com/hezz9ILkBX
— Michele Reagan (@SecretaryReagan) January 17, 2018