Pinal County Attorney Kent Volkmer did not plan to become his county’s default spokesperson about its 2022 General Election mess, but he embraces the chance to lead the public in understanding how hundreds of ballots were not counted and ensuring it will not happen again.
Volkmer spoke with Arizona Daily Independent last week about several election topics, from Pinal County’s decision last December to withhold evidence from a judge during an election challenge to why he would welcome the Arizona Legislature reviewing election laws related to recounts and election challenges.
One thing Volkmer was restricted from talking about is the legal advice he has provided to Pinal County officials concerning the fact the Nov. 8 election results canvassed by the board of supervisors on Nov. 21 were wrong and that dozens of races may have ended up with incorrect “official” vote totals.
Those conversations and communications, Volkmer explained, are covered by attorney-client privilege. But that still left a lot of topics for the Republican county attorney to weigh in on.
Pinal County, like all counties, announces its election schedule months before a specific election cycle in order to ensure candidates and the public know all the important deadlines, including the planned canvass date.
Volkmer, who was sworn into office in 2017, insists he was never provided any warning that the figures then-Elections Director Virginia Ross provided to the board of supervisors to canvass Nov. 21 were inaccurate. Ross specifically told the supervisors, “I stand by the results,” and Volkmer himself said at the meeting that “everything would suggest there has been no irregularities.”
Before the month was out, Volkmer would learn the disturbing truth that Ross’s figures had not been reconciled and it would soon be discovered that hundreds of ballots were never even tabulated to be included in the canvass.
Volkmer says that if such warning had been brought to his attention even during the Nov. 21 meeting he would have “slowed things down” and recommended the supervisors hold off on the canvass vote.
He would have made that recommendation, Volkmer says, as he would want the public to be ensured that the declared winners were those “who got the most votes” in each race. In addition, the statewide deadline to canvass was not until Nov. 28.
Ross, the county’s one-time County Recorder, was tapped to head the beleaguered Elections Department after a disastrous 2022 Primary Election in August. She worked under a nearly $40,000 per month contract with a promised $25,000 bonus if the canvass was approved Nov. 21.
Instead, Volkmer says he learned on Nov. 29, while out of town for a work-related conference, that Ross’s numbers “were not adding up.” He received the information from a trusted source – Geraldine Roll, the incoming Elections Director who had been working for Volkmer as a deputy county attorney.
Volkmer was not, however, told at that point the extent of any problem, in part because Roll did not know.
But by the time Roll realized there was a serious problem with her predecessor’s vote totals, Pinal County had passed what Volkmer described as “the point of no return” because the canvassed results were already official and had been sent to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.
There appears to be no contingency in state law for supervisors to reverse or re-do a canvass vote, no matter the reason. Yet Volkmer says he and Roll knew they had an option forthcoming, as two statewide contests in the 2022 General Election would be requiring recounts: the race for attorney general and for superintendent of public instruction.
According to Volkmer, “there was nothing we could do” to correct any vote totals except await the recount order.
In 2022, a new law took effect in Arizona which reduced the margin of victory to trigger a recount of ballots in specific races. Such recounts do not look at nor correct the outcomes in any other races on those ballots.
The recount created additional problems for Pinal County beyond trying to figure out the true vote counts.
The attorney general race between Abe Hamadeh and Kris Mayes was simultaneously the subject of an election challenge filed by Hamadeh. Pinal County was considered a nominal defendant in Hamadeh’s challenge, meaning the county had a technical connection with the dispute but no active responsibility.
Yet as Volkmer learned, there is no procedure for what obligation a county has if potentially exculpatory information is uncovered. This happened when Pinal County’s recount revealed hundreds of uncounted ballots, which would help cut Mayes 511-vote victory over Hamadeh to just 280 votes.
But the information was withheld from Hamadeh, Mayes, and the Mohave County judge preparing to preside over a Dec. 23 trial.
Pinal County had, however, discussed the situation in several communications to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office starting in early December and running until the day before the trial.
Volkmer believes everyone in Pinal County involved in the recount acted with full diligence and with as much transparency as legally possible. In addition, he points to “competing court orders” as the judge overseeing the recount barred counties from publicly revealing their new vote totals until Dec. 29.
One legal expert finds Volkmer’s lack of candor regarding the Hamadeh v. Mayes case disturbing.
“Kent Volkmer is an experienced county attorney, so his decision to sit on his hands on the sidelines while withholding evidence in the attorney general challenge is inexcusable,” the attorney said. “He had an obligation at the very least as an officer of the court to contact the judge and the parties with a heads up that problems existed, even if he believed he could not reveal vote totals.”
The legal expert also noted Volkmer has never suggested he sought assistance from the State Bar of Arizona’s ethics unit.
The situation with the recount and the election challenge provides “a lot of take aways” not only for Pinal County but also Arizona’s other 14 counties, Volkmer noted. And he believes elections officials and voters should “anticipate and expect more recounts” as a result of the narrower margins.
It is one reason Volkmer would be happy to have the Arizona Legislature, and not the Secretary of State, address some of the issues Pinal County dealt with last year, as similar situations could happen in other counties.
“We would welcome more clarification,” he explained. “We want it to be clear from the Legislature and not have the Secretary of State setting law.”
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Pinal County Elections Director Quits Just Days After Promising To Discuss Past Problems