Contradiction: Judge Says Ballot Envelopes Can’t Be Public, Yet Petition Sheets Are

December 4, 2023 ADI Staff Reporter
ballots

A judge denied gubernatorial challenger Kari Lake access to the 2022 ballot envelopes last week, citing privacy concerns; yet petition sheets are fully public.

Abe Hamadeh — the Republican attorney general candidate challenger, now also a congressional candidate — pointed out the contradiction in response to the ruling. Hamadeh noted that ballot envelopes afford a greater level of privacy because they don’t contain information as to whom the voter cast their ballot, unlike petition sheets which contain identifying information alongside a partisan issue.

“So… we can see and challenge petitions which include names, signatures and addresses of voters BUT we can’t see ballot envelopes that just have a name and signature… because… of voter privacy?” said Hamadeh. “A ballot envelope is separated from the actual ballot so no one will know how someone voted.”

Hamadeh cited the 2018 discovery of four campaigns caught using fraudulent signatures.

In his ruling, Judge John Hannah of the Maricopa County Superior Court argued that a voter’s name, address, and phone number were enough to elicit widespread fraud and harassment. The envelopes don’t contain the additional security information used to verify a voter’s ballot, such as the last four digits of a Social Security number or a mother’s maiden name.

“The ballot affidavit envelopes from the 2022 election include the signatures of some 1.3 million Maricopa County voters, each conveniently presented with the voter’s name, address, and telephone number on the same page,” said Hannah. “Disclosure of the ballot affidavit envelopes therefore would create a risk of widespread fraud where none exists at present.”

Hannah credited Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer’s testimony and expert knowledge as the basis for his ruling.

“The Court credits Mr. Richer’s testimony that disclosure of the ballot affidavit envelopes would create election integrity issues and depress voter participation,” said Hannah. “That knowledge makes Mr. Richer’s evaluation of the risks of voter information disclosure authoritative enough, and his predictions about the consequences of disclosure reliable enough, to carry substantial weight in the balancing of interests that a contested public records request like this one requires.”

Hannah also declared that Lake hadn’t presented a single case of faulty signature verification.

In his opposition to Proposition 309 last year, Richer said that ballot envelopes contain no sensitive personal identifying information apart from a signature.

Back in March, Richer defended his office’s right to refuse Lake access to the ballot envelopes. Richer claimed their release would be illegal. Hannah agreed in last week’s ruling, though he did preface with the concession that ballot envelopes are of a restrictive type of public record.

Lake’s campaign echoed Hamadeh’s assessment. They accused Richer of undermining elections for testifying against opening the ballot envelopes for public records.

One of the motivators behind Lake’s petition was concerns over the accuracy of the signature verification process.

Richer used the ruling to ask for campaign donations.

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