The animosity and distrust between the Maricopa Board of Supervisors and the Republican-led Arizona Legislature continues to deepen with a new issue finding a wedge between the two sides.
On Wednesday, Arizona Senator J.D. Mesnard took to the floor of his chamber to address the Maricopa County Supervisors’ ongoing consideration of two legislative vacancies in both the House and the Senate.
"The length of time of these vacancies is the longest, while we've been in session, in a half a century! 56 years!"
One of the vacancies is due to an expulsion of a Republican member of the Arizona House of Representatives. The other for a resignation of a Democrat member of the State Senate.
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is statutorily required by law to select the replacement for the vacancy from a pool of three same-party nominees chosen by their party. Republican precinct committeemen transmitted three names for the open House seat (Liz Harris, Julie Willoughby, and Steve Steele) as did the Democrats for the Senate seat (Representatives Cesar Aguilar and Flavio Bravio in addition to Quant’a Crews).
Mesnard’s frustrations boiled over on the Senate floor as he laid out his charge against the Supervisors’ alleged delay in filling the two vacancies for 19 (Senate) and 20 (House) days. He informed his colleagues “the length of these vacancies is the longest, while we’ve been in session, in a half a century – 56 years!” The East Valley lawmaker also said that 8.76 days is the historical average to fill the vacancy.
What seemed to bring Senator Mesnard to this point were some of the rumors he recounted hearing about for the reasons in the delay to fulfill the vacancies. According to the senator, “one of the rumors is there may be a belief that the county can reject all three of the nominees put forward.” The other rumor “is that (the supervisors) just want to sit on this for a while and hold out for some piece of legislation that they want to see passed” – in other words, “leverage” on the Arizona Legislature.
Senator Mesnard spoke on behalf of the 120 Republican precinct committeemen who rearranged their schedule back in April to nominate the three individuals to fill the open House seat. He bemoaned the fact that such a lengthy delay was not previously an issue, and he hinted that maybe his colleagues should take future action to change the statute to force the county board of supervisors to act with more urgency when filling vacancies during a legislative session. He stated that the “Board of Supervisors should have held a special meeting to hasten what should be an important priority for them.”
The members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors were definitely paying attention to Senator Mesnard’s words. Supervisor Steve Gallardo quickly responded on Twitter, writing, “Thanks for taking us all the way back to the 70s Senator. We didn’t receive nominees until the 4/18. Some didn’t respond right away to request for background info. Board is performing due diligence. As always, Arizona Senate Republicans are ignoring the facts.”
Thanks for taking us all the way back to the 70s Senator. We didn’t receive nominees until the 4/18. Some didn’t respond right away to request for background info. Board is performing due diligence. As always @AZSenateGOP are ignoring the facts. 🤣 https://t.co/JiRXnWLj0C
— Supervisor Steve Gallardo (@Steve_Gallardo) May 3, 2023
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
The Arizona Senate took the final vote on 16 election-related bills on Monday, including one to restore the precinct committeemen (PC) elections, sans its emergency clause implementing it immediately. The remaining 11 of the 16 failed, with either State Senator Paul Boyer (R-Glendale) alone or State Senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R-Scottsdale) joining him to kill the bills.
The #AzSen just passed SB1720 – a fix to the PC issue but sans the emergency clause. Just one Democrat voted for it – @seanbowie@FannKfann asks, “What would Sen. Bradley do?”
SB1259, increasing the minimum number of precincts included in post-election hand counts, as well as allowing an Arizona resident or the attorney general, secretary of state, or legislative council to request a recount.
SB1329, requiring county recorders or lead election officials to post online the number of early ballots returned on election day.
SB1362, allowing voters to have their early ballot tabulated on site at a polling place or voting center, so long as they present an ID.
SB1460, allowing voters to receive a standard ballot at a polling place even if they received an early ballot previously, so long as no record of their vote existed in the election system.
Six bills failed narrowly, 15-14, with Boyer being the sole Republican to vote against them:
SB1055, rendering election equipment or services contractors liable for damages and guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor if they fail to fulfill the terms of the contract.
SB1056, invalidating ballots not included in chain of custody documentation and making it a class 2 misdemeanor to knowingly put a ballot into the collection, verification, or tabulation process outside of the official chain of custody.
SB1360, allowing election observers the right to observe, document, and question all stages of the election process.
SB1465, requiring the secretary of state to revoke certification for election equipment that doesn’t meet outlined requirements, and requiring at least one member of the Equipment Certification Advisory Committee to hold a cybersecurity certification. The Senate approved a motion to reconsider the bill from its sponsor, State Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff).
SB1577, requiring county recorders or other lead election officials to separate and record duplicated and adjudicated ballots by their type and defect or damage, compiled in a report submitted to the legislature.
SB1609, requiring a court to order an election to be repeated within 90 days if a contested ballot measure or candidate didn’t receive the highest number of votes.
— Paul "nothing but trouble" Boyer (@PaulDBoyer) March 14, 2022
On five bills, Ugenti-Rita joined Boyer and Senate Democrats to vote “no”:
SB1359, requiring unique election system passwords for election employees, volunteers, and contractors.
SB1457, requiring the secretary of state to ensure that vote recording, tabulating machines and devices meet certain security standards, don’t have internet connectivity, and may track users with unique login credentials.
SB1476, requiring ballots to be consecutively numbered with a unique number, and requiring chain of custody documents or logs to track ballots.
SB1570, implementing additional voting equipment chain of custody requirements such as access restricted to authorized election personnel, tamper-proof seals for accessible ports, and chain of custody logging, as well as prohibiting voting equipment from having internet access capabilities.
SB1572, requiring county recorders to publish a list of eligible voters on their website 10 days before primary and general elections, as well as all ballot images and sortable cast-vote records, and requiring all ballots to be separated and tabulated by precinct.
Ugenti-Rita is campaigning for secretary of state this year.
. @PaulDBoyer kills a bill that would require passwords to be unique on tabulation equipment@MichelleUgenti votes No also – – – hoping this means we will see it back
This bill is very simple and the language was modified to serve the counties#SB1359
— Merissa Hamilton 🗳 ⛽🗽 (@merissahamilton) March 14, 2022
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
An internal conflict appears to be brewing over state legislation which passed through the House and the Senate on March 3 on combined votes of 85 to 0 and was immediately signed into law the same day.
House Bill 2839 was intended to address concerns with statutory deadlines for candidates to qualify to run in Arizona’s 2022 primary elections, the first based on the state’s recently redrawn 30 legislative and 9 congressional districts.
HB2839 was written as an emergency law to provide new rules for this year’s primary election nominating petitions. Passage required a bipartisan, supermajority margin of at least two-thirds of both the 60-member House and 30-member Senate to be become immediately effective once Gov. Doug Ducey affixed his signature.
Yet within 48 hours of the emergency law taking affect, questions began to be asked about one of the four sections of the new law. By Monday morning, the majority of legislators who voted for HB2839 conceded they either misunderstood Section 4 or had not read the bill before casting a vote.
Section 4 contains a new, this-year-only nominating petition requirement which allows candidates for political party precinct committeemen (PCs) to skip signature gathering. But it also gives a political party’s local county committee sole authority to decide which one candidate must be appointed by the county board of supervisors to every PC position for that party.
In Arizona, a PC’s minimum duties under state law involve assisting their political party in voter registration and also providing voter assistance during an election. But a key PC duty involves a vacancy in a county or state office. In most instances, it is a county’s PCs of the party of the prior officeholder who nominate the candidate(s) to fill the vacancy.
The new law also contains other provisions in Section 4 which are confusing, such as providing for only one PC for each precinct, when some precincts currently have several PCs.
Senate President Karen Fann admitted on Sunday that Section 4 resulted in an unintended change in state law. She spent the weekend and Monday working with members to design a plan to repeal Section 4 while also ensuring the thousands of Arizonans interested in serving as a two-year terms as party precinct committeemen will be able to get their names on August’s primary election ballot.
Myriad reasons have been put forth by legislators for why they voted in support of HB2839 without questioning the drastic changes to PCs. Some privately admitted they did not read the bill’s language due to its support by legislative leaders. Others say the text of Section 4 was not capitalized, leading them to believe there was nothing being changed to PC-related laws.
Still others say they read the bill but believed Section 4’s reference to selection of PCs by the local party committee applied only to new precincts recently created under the once-a-decade statewide redistricting process.
New bills were introduced Monday in both chambers – HB2840 and SB1720 – to fully repeal Section 4. However, there are not enough votes yet to pass either bill by the necessary supermajority margin to take affect immediately.
In addition, many lawmakers say they will not vote to repeal Section 4 unless there is new legislation to properly address the PC nomination petition deadline.
“I’ve been pushing for a full repeal of this language all weekend,” Rep. Jake Hoffman said Monday. “The section dealing with PC elections that was snuck into the emergency bill last week will be removed.”
Hoffman (R-LD12) also called on Monday for a thorough review of how the PC language was added to the bill without a full disclosure to legislators.
“In my meeting with leadership today I also made it exceedingly clear that there must be accountability for this abhorrent breach of trust and legislative process,” he said.
Tuesday’s announcement by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that non-essential travelers will be allowed to enter the United States via land and ferry Ports of Entry (POEs) starting sometime next month if they present “appropriate documentation” of being fully vaccinated for COVID-19 is welcome news for businesses and communities across Arizona.
“Cross-border travel creates significant economic activity in our border communities and benefits our broader economy,” U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement, which did not include an effective date other than sometime in early November.
In 2019, Mexicans were estimated to have spent about $1.4 billion in Arizona. While Mayorkas called the travel of tourists and others who come to Arizona for various reasons “nonessential,” many business owners around the seven CBP Ports of Entry in Arizona say the revenues associated with regulated crossing is anything but.
“Taking this step to welcome vaccinated tourists will be an essential push to strengthen all border communities that heavily rely on international commerce,” according to the Nogales-Santa Cruz County Chamber of Commerce, which noted the county’s economy has been “heavily impacted” by the travel restrictions.
Those COVID-19 travel restrictions at POEs were initially put into effect in March 2020 as a public health measure. Essential travel -medical, educations, employment- was later allowed but President Joe Biden has continually extended the non-essential travel ban, despite data showing the ongoing closure was decimating the economies of Arizona border communities.
Critics also pointed to the fact that air travel between the two counties has been allowed for months. Mayorkas’ announcement, which also applies to POE access into the United States from Canada, came just days before an Oct. 21 deadline on non-essential travel was set to expire.
The irony of the White House announcement, however, has not been lost on one Arizona business owner.
Constanin Querard of Grassroots Direct, LLC noted that the policy change means “fully vaccinated people who want to come in legally can now get in as easily as unvaccinated people who want to come in illegally.”
Meanwhile, the Biden Administration’s refusal to fully reopen the Ports of Entry to land travel before now is having an unexpected beneficial impact for one group.
The Douglas POE in Cochise County is an economic driver in a community controlled and governed by Democrats for decades. But according to Robert Montgomery, the devastating economic impact of the non-essential travel restrictions has been a boon for the Cochise County Republican Committee.
Montgomery, chairman of the CCRC, told AZ Free News that many “very frustrated lifelong Democrats” have been checking out the Republican platform. And they like what they see, particularly on the issues of abortion, gun rights, and illegal immigration, Montgomery said.
This is resulting in more Conservatives getting involved in local public office, from school boards to the city council, and Montgomery says the list of Republican precinct committeemen is growing.
He added that the transition from blue to red voters in border communities “is not unique to Cochise County; it’s happening across southern Arizona and the southwest U.S. border,” he said.
Silly Season is that time when professional sports teams announce major trades, resignations, and firings. It starts in Major League Baseball later this month when the World Series is finished, and will be on full display within NASCAR once the season-ending checkered flag waves at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 7.
This fall, the 55th Arizona Legislature is having its own version of Silly Season, with myriad vacancies that will change the dynamics of the House and Senate when the second regular session starts in January 2022.
One of those vacancies is slated to be filled any day now by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors following last month’s resignation of Rep. Aaron Lieberman (D-LD28) who is running for Governor. Lieberman’s replacement will be selected by the county board once it receives a list of three nominations from the precinct committeemen of the Democratic Party of Maricopa County.
Sen. Kristen Engel (D-LD10) has also resigned to focus on her campaign for Congressional District 2. The Pima County Board of Supervisors has already received three nominations from the Pima County Democratic Party precinct committeemen for Engel’s replacement, one of whom is Rep. Stephanie Stahl Hamilton (D-LD10).
Stahl Hamilton is seen as the favorite when the county board votes Oct. 19, meaning the Pima County Dems would then have to repeat the precinct committeemen nomination process to fill Stahl Hamilton’s seat in the House.
However, not all of the vacancies will be connected to campaign efforts.
Rep. Randy Friese (D-LD9) announced in March he was running for CD2, which would have pitted him against Engel and Rep. Daniel Hernandez in the Democratic Party primary. Friese, who is a physician, dropped out of the race in September, citing personal and professional considerations. He recently confirmed his intention to leave the Legislature in the next few weeks.
Once Friese’s resignation is formally tendered then the Pima County Democratic Party precinct committeemen will meet once again to nominate three replacements for the Pima County Board of Supervisors to choose from.
In early September, Rep. Bret Roberts (R-LD11) announced his resignation effective at the end of the month due to a planned family move out of state. His district covered portions of Pima and Pinal counites, but it will be the Pinal County Republican precinct committeemen who will nominate three replacements for the Pinal County Board of Supervisors to choose from.
Of course, the most shocking resignation occurred in August when Sen. Tony Navarrete (D-LD30) was arrested for multiple felonies related to child molestation. The vacancy of Navarrete’s seat was filled by Rep. Raquel Teran (D-LD30), whose replacement in the House has not yet been announced by the Pima County board.
But it does not take a lawmaker’s resignation to mix things up at the Legislature.
Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R-LD23) announced earlier this month she is stepping down from one of the most influential legislative assignments – chairperson of the Senate Government Committee. She told Senate President Karen Fann that she will continue serving on the Appropriations, Commerce, and Finance committees, and stands “ready and committed” to election reform, one of the key subjects handed by the Government Committee.
The unexpected announcement by Ugenti-Rita, who is running for Arizona Secretary of State, has already led to backdoor discussions and public posturing by some senators hoping to sway Fann’s decision on who replaces Ugenti-Rita on the Government Committee as well as who Fann names as the committee’s new chair.
Meanwhile, last month’s death of Rep. Frank Pratt (R-LD8) will trigger another round of recommendations by Pinal County’s Republican precinct committeemen to the Pinal County board to fill Pratt’s seat.
