A recent 3-2 vote by the Pima County Board of Supervisors to prevent the county’s Election Integrity Commission (EIC) from meeting via stay-at-home conference calls has prompted cries of foul from the Pima County Republican Party just weeks before early ballots are to be mailed out.
Calling it “dirty politics at its worst,” party chairman David Eppihimer said last week that the Pima County board claims to “want fair and accurate elections but their behavior says otherwise.” He added that the board’s April 9 refusal to allow the bi-partisan commission to meet by phone “should outrage every one of you.”
The 10-member EIC is chartered as an advisory group reporting directly to the board of supervisors. The members consist of one citizen appointed by each of the five supervisors along with one person selected by County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry. The other members are selected from each of the four main political parties in Arizona: Democratic, Green, Libertarian, and Republican.
“The purpose is to help improve the conduct of elections by examining the systems and processes behind them in order to improve functioning of and public trust in the Pima County electoral process,” the website states.
Eppihimer noted that in past elections, EIC members have provided suggestions and feedback for Election Department Director Brad Nelson and his staff about ballots, polling procedures, and voter outreach. In January, the commission discussed concerns about inaccurate voter registration and the security of early voting ballots.
That was followed at the February meeting with discussions about issues of disabled voter access and fair elections. But then the March and April meetings were ordered cancelled by the county board to protect against COVID-19.
On April 9, the supervisors reactivated the Small Business Commission but voted down motions to reactivate the EIC and the Transportation Advisory Committee. The message received by EIC’s member were that their concerns were “a poor allocation of county staff time” right now, and there’s been no signal from county officials of when the EIC can meet again, even if conducted by phone or video, according to John Cote, who is the commission’s Republican Party representative.
And that is a serious problem, says Eppihimer, because mail-in ballots for the Aug. 4 primary need to be designed and printed in time to be mailed out in early July.
“This commission serves as an important oversight body and this board majority is seeking less commission participation,” Eppihimer noted. “In the past, the supervisors have either refused to act or employed delaying tactics before acting on recommendations from this Commission, and now they’re saying they don’t even want to hear from (EIC).”
Members of the Pima County Republican Party also suggested last week that recent discussions among EIC members calling commission president Brian Bickel to resign may be related to the board of supervisors’ refusal to allow non-in-person meetings.
Bickel, a Democrat, is a candidate for Pima County Treasurer. He has declined to step down from the EIC, Eppihimer said, even though the commission he heads “is involved in the oversight of the election he’s running in.”
Last year, the Pima County Board of Supervisors sent a letter to the City of Tucson after the EIC expressed concerns about the mail-in ballots used during the city’s November election. The envelopes were designed in such a way that voters’ party affiliation was visible.
“The envelope clearly displays voter information that should be private about the signature line,” the EIC advised the board. “The City of Tucson’s perceived disclosure (of) private information could possibly have an adverse impact on the integrity of all Pima County elections.”