It will be up to Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre to decide whether the Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs has violated any laws in her handling of the E-Qual, the state’s online petition system used by candidates to collect nominating signatures.
On Tuesday, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich sent a letter thanking McIntyre for accepting the delegation of authority to undertake the investigation and “appropriate enforcement action” related to Hobbs’ actions with E-Qual. Such actions could involve civil or criminal enforcement, according to Brnovich.
The letter further states McIntyre “will operate independently of the Attorney General’s Office in determining what actions are appropriate to resolve this matter.” There is nothing mentioned in Brnovich’s letter about a suggested deadline for McIntyre to conclude his investigation or any enforcement action.
Two state election laws, ARS 16-316 and ARS 16-318, provide for an online system which qualified electors can use to sign nomination petitions for candidates. The statutory duty for maintaining that E-Qual system falls to the Secretary of State.
At issue is Hobbs’ decision to disable the part of the E-Qual relied on by candidates running for legislative or congressional office. Those candidates normally cannot get their names on the ballot without submitting a predetermined number of nominating signatures from voters within the district the candidate wishes to represent.
Hobbs has contended there is no way to keep E-Qual live and update voter registration files to reflect voters’ new districts in light of the recent decennial redistricting. However, her office issued conflicting statements over the last few months as to how legislative and congressional candidates could still utilize E-Qual to obtain the necessary signatures.
But on March 17, Hobbs allowed her staff to block access to district-based candidates’ petitions. Since then, the attorney general’s office has received “multiple written complaints” about the lack of E-Qual access, according to Brnovich’s letter to McIntyre.
Brnovich even warned Hobbs that disabling the E-Qual system for any candidates could be a violation of state law. In response, Hobbs sought and was denied a court injunction intended to preempt any action by the attorney general’s office.
Typically complaints related to Title 16 election laws would be handled by the attorney general’s office, as Brnovich has a designated election integrity unit. But for unspecified reasons the attorney general chose to delegate his authority to McIntyre, an experienced prosecutor who has served as Cochise County’s top elected attorney since 2015.
One reason for the delegation could be the long-running rift between the Secretary of State and Brnovich on myriad issues, one of which prompted Hobbs to file a State Bar complaint against the attorney general. That complaint resulted in Brnovich signing a diversion agreement with the State Bar earlier this year.
This is at least the second time McIntyre has been tagged by Brnovich to handle a high profile matter.
In 2017, the Arizona Supreme Court directed the attorney general to review a 2013 finding that former Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne had violated campaign finance laws during the 2010 election. Brnovich delegated the review to McIntyre to avoid a claim of a conflict given that Horne lost to Brnovich in the 2014 Republican primary.
McIntyre determined that while Horne and a former aide had engaged in communication “which would cause any outside observer to cry foul,” the record “does not establish by a preponderance of the evidence that this communication was illegal.”
Arizona Daily Independent reached out to McIntyre about Tuesday’s announcement. No response was received prior to press time.
LEARN MORE ABOUT E-QUAL HERE
