Newly re-elected State Senator Ken Bennett criticized Maricopa County’s handling of this election as one full of missteps and gaffes. In a Thursday interview with “The Conservative Circus,” Bennett called Maricopa County’s handling of this election “disheartening.”
Bennett promised to introduce legislation that would ensure elections could be more “transparent, trackable, and publicly verified.” This election marks Bennett’s return to the state legislature, having served for nearly a decade from 1999 to 2007.
“Especially with the focus and scrutiny that’s been on our entire state and on Maricopa County for the last two years, this was the election that we had to begin reinstalling confidence that we know what we’re doing in elections,” said Bennett.
Ken Bennett discusses the Maricopa County elections Department failures for the 2022 midterm and how confidence mus https://t.co/n7cyvfXldT
According to Bennett’s platform, the newly re-elected state senator promises to see through legislation requiring counties to publish their list of registered voters by name, address, and precinct before each election, followed by a list of who voted in the election by name, address, and precinct, as well as ballot images and cast vote records.
Bennett’s insight comes from his time as the secretary of state. He oversaw 12 statewide elections, and one recount. In 2010, one of the ballot propositions led by 126 votes and triggered a full statewide recount of two million ballots. Only 12 votes changed. He said that elections should have that level of accuracy.
Bennett further stated that the Election Day fiasco wasn’t caused by the tabulation machines as initially thought — it was the printers. Bennett said that this was good news, since that means the tabulation machines require precision.
“They rejected the ballots because the darkness of the ink printed on there wasn’t even enough,” explained Bennett.
The secretary of state’s office wasn’t to blame, according to Bennett, although he noted that there could be better preventative measures put in place to ensure Tuesday’s issue doesn’t reoccur.
The secretary of state’s office included two main responsibilities, one of which includes ensuring a month before the election that county machines are spot-checked for accuracy. Based on the Election Day fiasco, Bennett suggested that the on-demand printers receive more scrutiny during the spot-checking process.
Bennett served as the liaison to the State Senate’s controversial Cyber Ninjas-led audit of the 2020 election. His time in the role was fraught with issues that would prompt him to step down and later continue to haunt the Cyber Ninjas.
During this election, Time sought out Bennett and a fellow former secretary of state, Democrat Richard Mahoney, to obtain their perspective on Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs’ oversight of her race. Both Bennett and Mahoney suggested that Hobbs recuse herself.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Military personnel stationed in Arizona anytime over the past 30 years may have thousands in unclaimed property.
The Arizona Department of Revenue (ADOR) is seeking 24,009 military members who have a combined $7 million in unclaimed property or funds in Arizona. The largest amount of unclaimed property is worth over $217,000.
Relevant personnel were stationed at Camp Navajo Army Base, Fort Huachuca Army Base, Luke Air Force Base, Tucson’s Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Yuma Proving Ground Army Base, and the Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) in Yuma.
Those who believe they have unclaimed property should visit MissingMoney.com, then enter their name as well as their state and city of residence. Individuals listed as having unclaimed property may then submit a claim form, linked here.
In the last fiscal year, the ADOR Unclaimed Property program returned $47 million to owners. Over the last three years, they returned about $155 million. Presently, ADOR reports having over $2 billion in unclaimed property.
Some unclaimed property over the years has all the makings of a blockbuster movie. According to Block Club Chicago, a Chicago man left behind $11 million in unclaimed property in 2016. That’s a record high for unclaimed property. The man, Joseph Stancak, died at 87 a multimillionaire without a will and no immediate living relatives. It wasn’t until this year that a company specializing in unclaimed money awarded the property to 119 distant relatives, none of whom knew Stancak.
An average of one in seven people have unclaimed property averaging $2,000, according to the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators.
Unclaimed property doesn’t remain in safekeeping forever, depending on what type of property is held. In January, ADOR hosted an auction for $1.8 billion in property from unclaimed safe deposit boxes.
ADOR holds onto that type of property for around three years before auctioning it off. The profits from those items are retained by ADOR in a bank account for another 35 years. That collection of property had one owner who potentially owned $1.5 million, according to 12 News.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) said Arizona’s elections reminded him of a third-world country, calling the state “an embarrassment.”
Rubio told Fox News on Wednesday that the chaos of the state’s election processes confused him.
“I don’t have anything against the state of Arizona, great people, but it seems like you guys are reporting on some third-world country that’s having one of these elections where every day they’re finding new boxes here, new votes there,” stated Rubio.
Rubio won re-election on Tuesday, leading with greater margins in historically blue, Hispanic counties. His state’s election law enables processing of early votes ahead of Election Day, enabling them to count the last of 7.5 million votes in a matter of hours.
If #Florida can count 7.5 million ballots in 5 hours how can it take days for some states to count less than 2 million?
Rubio’s not alone. Voters may feel frustrated by the Secretary of State’s trackers for general election results and ballot progress estimates. For some counties, the percentage of ballots counted have fluctuated, increasing then dropping as more ballots are reported.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, most of the counties didn’t report estimates for the total ballots counted, let alone the types of ballots left to process. As of press time, seven counties haven’t reported the total percentage of ballots counted. Only one county, Greenlee, has 100 percent of ballots processed: accounting for about 2,500 votes.
The other counties who issued percentages of ballots counted range in completion from 70 to 90 percent.
Perhaps the slowest to process their ballots may turn out to be Pima County. Their recorder informed reporters on Wednesday that it may take another week before they finish counting.
As of press time, the following Republican candidates are behind: Blake Masters for U.S. Senate, Kari Lake for Governor, Mark Finchem for Secretary of State, Abraham Hamadeh for Attorney General, David Schweikert for U.S. House District 1, Kelly Cooper for U.S. House District 4, and Robert Scantlebury for State Senate District 9. Most of these races remain close and difficult to call due to outstanding ballots.
Other Republicans currently leading their races include: Eli Crane for U.S. House District 2, David Farnsworth for State Senate District 10, Anthony Kern for State Senate District 27, Janae Shamp for State Senate District 29, and Wendy Rogers for State Senate District 7.
Both parties have expressed confidence that the outstanding ballots will end up in their favor.
Ahead of Thursday’s update to the election results, Secretary of State and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs issued another update in a series of pleas with voters to have patience for the ballot processing.
Accurate election results take time. County election officials are currently working on signature verifying and tabulating all early ballots returned on Election Day. You can stay up to date by visiting https://t.co/fUw8UPLENS#TrustedInfo2022pic.twitter.com/7Qrac4ujF0
Lake took the opposite stance. She insisted that counties were “dragging their feet” on ballot processing. Lake insisted that Election Day ballots would give her the lead on Hobbs.
Like Lake, Masters expressed confidence that the in-person ballots and those mail-in ballots dropped off on Election Day would weigh in his favor.
With the remaining ballots outstanding, we are confident we will win.
— Blake Masters for U.S. Senate Press (@MastersPress) November 9, 2022
Kelly expressed confidence that he would ultimately prevail, though he didn’t offer thoughts on the breakdown of the remaining ballots.
I’m confident we’re going to win. But we don’t have the final results just yet.
Until then, I want to thank everyone who supported our campaign. Whether you made calls, knocked doors, or chipped in a few dollars, we couldn’t have done this without you. pic.twitter.com/O4WcgYaxVz
On Thursday, the Chandler City Council established a nondiscrimination ordinance (NDO) to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
Two years in the making, the NDO prohibits the denial of public accommodations, employment, and housing on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. The council passed the NDO unanimously.
Nine citizens submitted their support of the NDO ahead of Thursday’s meeting; only two submitted opposition. Among those who testified in favor of the NDO were women claiming to be Christians and a business advocacy nonprofit, Local First Arizona, who insisted on the NDO’s potential for increasing city revenue. Chandler Pride, an LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, complained that the NDO didn’t go far enough.
Chandler Pride co-founder Jude Schroeder argued that the NDO shouldn’t have religious exemptions for nonprofits. Schroeder argued further that the enforcement mechanisms and punishments weren’t strong enough.
“Chandler residents served with tax dollars are not to be discriminated [against] by anyone for any reason,” said Schroeder.
Those who violate the NDO won’t be eligible for city contracts or grants. The NDO doesn’t apply to small businesses and private membership clubs.
Mayor Kevin Hartke assured citizens that the NDO came with plenty of religious exemptions.
“It makes a statement and it’s a statement I believe has always described Chandler,” said Hartke.
The NDO carves out an exemption for “bona fide religious organizations or persons who hold bona fide religious views.”
At the start of the council meeting, several citizens lamented that the current council agenda didn’t reflect the current issues or will of the people: other than the DEI policy, allowing backyard chickens, and expanding the number of days citizens may shoot off fireworks. The first citizen to speak expressed a desire for the council to focus more on addressing the inflation crisis and looming police hiring shortage. Almost a quarter of Chandlers’ police force is slated to retire in the next few years, and the pace of hiring hasn’t accommodated for that.
The council spent over $56,000 last year for the study to back this NDO. A survey of 33 percent of staff revealed that most city staffers are satisfied with the city’s diversity at present.
60 percent believe the city recognizes staff diversity, while 15 percent disagreed; close to 80 percent believe the city values different backgrounds, while 10 percent disagreed; 55 percent believe the city encourages different viewpoints, while close to 20 percent disagreed; 60 percent believe the city supports diverse teams, while 15 percent disagreed. The remaining percentage of staff were neutral. On average, 68 percent expressed a positive outlook on the city’s diversity outlook and integration, compared to 13 percent expressing a negative outlook.
Similarly, more city employees had a positive outlook on the city’s accessibility and availability of DEI education, events, and practices: 55 percent positive, 9 percent negative, and 17 percent neutral, and 18 percent didn’t know.
17 percent of employees disagreed with DEI implementation, 25 percent were neutral, 45 percent agreed, and 12 percent didn’t respond.
Chandler’s NDO aligns with those established by localities across the nation, and resembles the antidiscrimination laws established by states. Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws resulted in the targeting of several Christian business owners. One, a baker named Jake Phillips, declined to make a wedding cake for a gay couple and then declined to make a gender reveal cake for a transgender individual. Another, a website designer named Lorie Smith, declined to design wedding websites for same-sex couples.
Phillips won his Supreme Court (SCOTUS) case concerning the wedding cake, but remains in court for the gender reveal cake. Smith will appear before SCOTUS early next month to argue her case.
Arizona nearly banned sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R-Mesa) introduced a bill to do so, though it never advanced to a committee.
In addition to this latest policy, Chandler’s other DEI efforts launched in 2020, prompted by the death of George Floyd, came to fruition this year. The city sponsored and hosted its first LGBTQ+ event, produced a video series highlighting Black families living in Chandler, and hosted its first Asian community conference.
Watch the Chandler City Council meeting here:
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly told reporters on Wednesday that it may be another week before they finish counting ballots.
County Recorder Gabriella Cazares-Kelly and Elections Director Constance Hargrove updated the media this afternoon on the ballots left to count in Pima County. 1/ pic.twitter.com/dAYUonHsm7
The county has over 159,700 ballots left to be counted.
That’s just 63 percent of their ballots counted, the lowest percentage out of all reported counties — even Maricopa County, which experienced widespread tabulation machine failures for around eight hours, most of Election Day.
When could Pima County finish counting ballots?
"The 14th or 15th, we should have the majority and just be looking at those last … ballots," @GabriellaCKelly tells reporters …
The delay follows several significant changes in the county’s election procedures.
Earlier this summer, Cázares-Kelly prohibited political party observers for the primary election. The county also introduced vote centers this election, rather than the traditional method of having votes cast based on precinct. The county halved their operations from 280 voting precinct locations to 129 vote centers.
More recently, Cázares-Kelly was involved in the Proposition 309 controversy with Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer. Prop 309 would tighten ID requirements for in-person and early voting, which Richer opposed. As Arizona Association of County Recorders (AACR) president, Richer issued a false public statement that all 15 county recorders supported an anti-Prop 309 statement. It was Cázares-Kelly’s idea to include the recorders’ names.
Richer used county resources to advance development of his anti-Prop 309 letter. He is facing a complaint filed with the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).
There’s approximately 619,000 uncounted ballots remaining. Track updates to ballot counting here. Track updates to all of the races here.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
