By Staff Reporter |
UPDATE: The Arizona GOP and Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell issued a joint announcement on Friday clarifying that the bipartisan observation program used in this year’s primary will be in place for the general election. State Representative Alexander Kolodin walked back the statements reported criticizing Mitchell’s office.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell has found herself embroiled in the hot-button issue of election integrity.
The attorney’s office declined to back a reform deal led by Republican State Representative Alexander Kolodin between Runbeck — the private election services company for Maricopa and other counties — and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
The deal, as part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) secured earlier this year between the state legislature and Runbeck, would have implemented a bipartisan observation program and enhanced security, legislative audits of Runbeck software, published an election workflow document publicly, and provided access to historical 2022 election data.
Sources told the Arizona Daily Independent that Kolodin had asked Mitchell to “talk sense” to the supervisors. When the deal fell through, Kolodin criticized Mitchell’s office publicly.
Kolodin told “The Afternoon Addiction” radio host Garret Lewis on Thursday that, according to Runbeck, Maricopa County Attorney’s Office Thomas (Tom) Liddy pulled the county out of the MOU, and implied that the board hadn’t voted on the decision.
“Technically, the board of supervisors has to vote,” said Kolodin. If there’s one thing I understand very well is that when it comes to elections Tom Liddy tells the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors what to do.”
Then, Kolodin advised voters to abstain from voting for Mitchell and implied she was a Democrat rather than a Republican.
“If we’re going to have Democrats running that office we might as well have the ones with the ‘D’ next to their name,” said Kolodin.
Kolodin also claimed that the board declined to approve the MOU because voters had declined to reelect them, the ones who worked well with Liddy.
“This is a big way for Tom Liddy to tell everybody eff you for taking all of his allies and control over the county away,” said Kolodin.
Mitchell disputed Kolodin’s remarks. She said that the board had declined to change the terms of its contract with Runbeck to align with the MOU back in March, and that her office didn’t have the authority to decline contractual changes the way Kolodin effectively claimed it did.
Mitchell said MCAO’s authority only amounted to providing legal advice to the supervisors.
“Here are the facts: The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has a contract with Runbeck to print ballots and provide other services. Rep. Kolodin attempted to negotiate a separate contract with Runbeck that would change the terms of the contracts for both the Board of Supervisors and Runbeck. On March 11, 2024, the Board of Supervisors chose not to accept those changes after considering them. Rep. Kolodin has misrepresented the situation by claiming that it was the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) that rejected this change in terms. Quite the contrary: The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office has NO authority to accept or reject the terms. MCAO only can advise the Board of Supervisors as to what the law allows the Board to do. Rep. Kolodin’s misinformation campaign is false, irresponsible, and incendiary.”
Mitchell’s statement didn’t sway some local party leaders. Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) blamed Mitchell in a press release for the deal’s failure.
“The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBOS), acting under the advice of Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell’s Office, just pulled the plug on [the] Election Integrity measures which Runbeck had previously agreed [to] in a Memorandum of Understanding,” stated MCRC.
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