At the regular monthly meeting of the Executive Guidance Committee of the Maricopa County Republicans, a vote was taken that strengthened their support for two conservative principles.
- One person, one vote
- No ballot harvesting
Although the question of allowing ballot harvesting, via proxies, was not totally resolved, this was a step in the right direction.
The vote was not close, at 17 yes and 7 no.
The chain of events that led to this vote is quite unusual, so much so that no one remembers anything like this happening before.
On June 1, 2021 the whole executive board for the Republican Committee of district 15 resigned without notice and without allowing a period for the orderly transition of leadership.
This left the district without access to the bank account, leadership, venue to conduct meetings, and contact information for members, to mention just a few. So, the members of this group, all precinct committeemen, were left to scramble to put together an election of officers. That election took place on July 20, 2021.
That election was very unusual because it involved electing a whole new board, This happens only every two years, during reorganization, when the term expires for one board and another is elected in its place. But this was not a reorganization election because it was for electing officers to fulfill the remaining terms vacated by the mass resignation of the previous board.
The overwhelming majority of current precinct committeemen in District 15 favor the two aforementioned principles, namely one person one vote, and no ballot harvesting. They adhered to those principles as they elected a slate of officers by overwhelming majorities. That should have been the end of the crisis, but it was not.
The previous chairman, Derrik Rochwalik, filed a challenge to the July 20 election, which led to the necessity of addressing the issue during the August 3 meeting of the Maricopa County Republican executive guidance committee.
Why the leadership of the Maricopa County Republicans accepted the challenge is anyone’s guess. The request for cancellation of the election had three major, disqualifying flaws.
First, it was submitted 9 days after the election, way past the 3 day deadline for such action.
Second, since this was not a reorganization election, there was no mechanism in place to challenge the election.
Third, Mr. Rochwalik had no standing. He was not injured or inconvenienced in any way. In fact it was he who caused the crisis in the first place by his and his executive board’s unprofessional and unwarranted mass resignation.
The rank-and-file members of the Maricopa County Republicans acted according to the rules and common sense when they voted to dismiss the request for cancellation of the LD15 election.
Now, the executive board and the precinct committeemen of LD15 can resume their normal duties, which include, among others, recruiting candidates and winning elections.