By Staff Reporter |
Maricopa County is transitioning dozens of election sites while early voting is underway.
The Board of Supervisors and Recorder entered an agreement to transition 46 election sites from the recorder’s office to the board by Election Day on November 3.
The board discussed the transfer during its informal meeting on Monday. It is the outcome of a settlement agreement between the county recorder and board to vacate court rulings in the former’s lawsuit against the latter over election roles and responsibilities.
The 46 voting locations will be transitioned from early voting to emergency voting sites. The county aims to accomplish each site transition within 45 to 90 minutes.
Scott Jarrett, director of elections for the county, said during Monday’s meeting that he was “very confident” that the county would experience a “smooth transition.”
Under the agreement, Jarrett said, the board and recorder won’t share election equipment. Jarrett said the transition of equipment and sites reflected best practices for chain of custody and security.
“The reason why we’re doing this is, not only was it part of the settlement agreement, but this is a principle that is established in business practices, in government,” said Jarrett. “So that’s one of the main reasons why we’re not sharing this equipment: it’s to adhere to the [principle of] least privilege[.]”
Ballot-on-demand printers, check-in stations, and corresponding cabling will be swapped upon transition. Only non-technical equipment will stay, like voting booths, signage, and tables.
Taylor Kinnerup, communications personnel for Supervisor Thomas Galvin, posted a statement claiming that this refusal to share was because the transfer of site equipment was required.
The language of the agreement doesn’t include a requirement for transition and even supports shared equipment, as noted by Merissa Caldwell, EZAZ chairwoman. The agreement does state that the board was required to give the recorder ownership of early voting equipment, and that the board handles the procurement, deployment, and control of equipment and supplies.
The agreement also allowed for the board and recorder’s office to purchase early voting site equipment jointly.
Despite the arrangement that took place this week, the supervisors and recorder have not been operating on friendly terms.
Some of the supervisors, including board leadership, attacked Recorder Justin Heap last week for adhering to federal policy and filing a complaint about suspicious activity witnessed on a ballot tabulation center livestream.
Footage reflected two elections workers entering the tabulation center late at night to upload flash drives into elections equipment.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation quickly investigated and cleared the workers of wrongdoing. The county also issued statements clarifying that the footage reflected authorized work updating ballot duplication system software and uploading election files.
Days later, a voting location in Chandler had the settings for three ballot printers altered. The recorder’s office replaced the printers and sent them for forensic examination, and on that same day issued a press release notifying voters of the incident. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is investigating but says it has so far found no evidence of election interference or a crime.
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