Editors’ Note: The mail-in ballots for the Arizona Presidential Primary were mailed out last week and landed in your mail by week’s end. Please read this article (Part 1) and the following article (Part 2) of How NOT to Vote in the November 5, 2024 Election in Arizona. The bottom line is this: DON’T WAIT to vote!! Open your mail-in ballot now, make your choice(s), sign and seal the green envelope and get the ballot to the post office ASAP. The instructions and reasons to vote now and do so intelligently are below in Part 1 and 2. Consider the Arizona Presidential Primary vote a dry run (and a very important one) for the critical general election in November. Please do not delay. You can follow your ballot with the links in Part 2 to be sure that your signature verification is done and your ballot is counted with the choice(s) you intend.
American and Arizona citizens have lost faith in our election system. Following elections in 2018, the very broken and Covid poisoned election of 2020 and the nationally embarrassing 2022 Arizona election (especially in Maricopa County where over 60% of AZ ballots are cast), We the People are justified in lacking faith in the system. Without election integrity and confidence in each citizen’s vote, representative government, i.e., our Republic (not the Left’s ‘Democracy’), cannot exist and appears close to that outcome being engineered by the radical leftist and Marxist cabal we used to call the Democratic Party.
At one time, before 2016, Arizona was a model of election integrity and honest mail-in voting mechanics that worked well for many years, reflecting the will of Arizona citizens giving legitimate consent to those who govern us. The majority of Arizona citizen voters cast their ballots by mail and confidence in the state’s election system was solid.
This changed radically after 2016. Adrian Fontes, a radical Democrat was elected to the office of Maricopa County Recorder. Fontes is a student of the infamous Mark Elias, the Democrat lawyer and associate of Hillary Clinton and Eric Holder, Obama’s (“Wingman”) Attorney General. They are very active in altering election procedures (constitutionally to be done only by state legislatures) throughout the nation.
Helen Purcell had been the nonpartisan Recorder for 28 years, running an honest, clean and model voting registration system in Maricopa County. Leading up to the 2016 election, she was blamed for long lines and delayed voting at polling stations caused by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors incompetence leading to her defeat and the installation of Fontes in 2017 in the county’s Recorder office. The Prickly Pear has reported on the extreme partisan, corrupt, and incompetent behavior of Adrian Fontes in this office. Stephen Richer, current Maricopa County Recorder, confirmed this while running (and barely winning) this office in 2020 during interviews with The Prickly Pear. He is the current Recorder, installed in January 2021.
Fontes’ actions are tied to the broken elections of 2018, 2020 and 2022. As Maricopa County Recorder, he engineered the almost exclusive registering of voters in Democrat populations, using office staff against regulations. Incredibly (perhaps not) he is now the Arizona Secretary of State with enormous oversight of Arizona’s election system and is entangled with great controversy over the Elections Procedure Manual and his refusal to clean up at least 70K names that should not be on the voter list. The AZ Supreme Court has smacked down his actions in both offices repeatedly. Fontes picked up where Katie Hobbs left off when she was Secretary of State during Governor Ducey’s tenure. Incredibly (perhaps not), Hobbs is now Governor, elected in a very questionable, controversial and extremely close 2022 election.
Why is this disturbing and corrupted election history being presented for our readers? If you are an informed Arizonan who really cares about election integrity and that your vote actually represents your consent to be governed, How NOT to Vote in the November 5, 2024 Election in Arizona: Part 2 is key.
I will outline and explain the do’s and don’ts for the next election in Part 2, the following three issues being central:
- Be sure you are on the Active Early Voting List (AEVL) – DO NOT RELY ON CASTING YOUR BALLOT AT A POLLING STATION ON ELECTION DAY.
- Vote early and soon after you receive you Mail-In Ballot– DO NOT WAIT TO VOTE. Decide, fill out your ballot and mail at your post office. Never use a ‘drop box’ for ballot collection. Part 2 will explain how to follow and confirm that your Mail-In ballot has been received and your signature verified, indicating that your ballot/vote is cast and counted.
- NEVER, NEVER, EVER BRING THE GREEN ENVELOPE CONTAINING YOUR MAIL-IN BALLOT TO ‘DROP OFF’ AT A POLLING STATION ON THE DAY OF ELECTION!!!!YOU WILL NOT HAVE VOTED ON ELECTION DAY!!!!
Details on these three key guidelines will be presented in How NOT to Vote in the November 5, 2024 Election in Arizona: Part 2.
Remember – The Arizona primary is on March 19th – about three weeks from now. If you are not on the Active Early Voting List now, please do so now ASAP. Part 2 will give you the instructions and links to accomplish this.
John R. Ammon is a writer with The Prickly Pear. The mission of The Prickly Pear is to inform and educate the public and those in the governing and public policy arenas about current and critical issues impacting Arizonans and Americans. Advocacy of citizen responsibilities and political and regulatory leadership must be truthful, aggressive and fearless.
I get my early ballot,think about it, fill it out and then I put it in the voting box on voting day. Of course, in Pima County who knows how my vote will be interpreted.
Why would you do that when you know that your ballot has to go to the county for signature check before it can be counted.
As with almost any conceivable topic, absolutes are almost always absolutely wrong . . . including the one I just made. It’s better to adopt an “it depends” approach. In the case of the article, following the advice to get on the AEVL and vote early is prone to unintended consequences. Here’s an example of how early voting can, and did, go wrong. During the run-up to the 2016 Republican PPE, the early ballots went out, and many voters marked and returned them. Then, between ballot distribution and the actual PPE, Marco Rubio dropped out. It’s likely some (many/most?) of the voters who voted for him, and he got lots of Arizona votes, would have selected a different candidate had they waited. Ammon screaming in uppercase, bold typeface makes him loud, not right. There are options. Voters should know what they are and choose accordingly. As for me, after my 30+ years in the military, where I was forced to vote absentee, I will never consider AEVL or any other early-voting option. I will cast my ballot at the polls on election day, even if I have to crawl to get there.
Received a phone call this evening from an unidentified caller, urging me to vote early and by mail. When I questioned the logic of that suggestion, the caller hung up abruptly.
something smells bad; the election will be tainted, no question in my mind. Pay attention to dinner-time calls and keep the rest of us posted and informed.