From their pulpit at press conferences, they shrugged off questions and concerns about the potential for long lines on election day and whether they would have their voting centers properly equipped. For weeks, the mainstream media blasted out to Arizonans that they are competent election officials, about to implement the “safest, most secure” election in history.
Then it all came crumbling down in what was one of the worst election days in recent history. Long lines, yes. But more importantly, critical equipment failures resulted in the complete inability to tabulate ballots at dozens of voting locations for several hours. It didn’t stop there. The issues persisted in the coming weeks for Maricopa County, who responded to requests for information with hostility. And then, we found out Pinal County (following major problems in their primary election) had miscounted hundreds of ballots, shrinking the already miniscule gap between the candidates for attorney general.
Two months later, these issues are still being litigated. But regardless of how the election contests being pursued by Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh turn out, nothing changes the fact that Maricopa and Pinal Counties bungled the election.
Going forward, Arizona must learn from what happened, craft meaningful solutions, and focus efforts on productive goals ahead of 2024.
We Need a Legitimate Investigation into Maricopa and Pinal Counties
What happened in Maricopa and Pinal Counties is nothing short of a disaster. Internal reviews or nontransparent “audits” conducted by the counties themselves won’t cut it. We need a thorough and transparent investigation into what led to the various issues in these counties to find out what really happened. Why did so many printers malfunction the morning of the election? Why did it take more than half the day to fix them? Why were early ballots not counted before they were transported from the voting centers? These and numerous other questions demand real answers.
At this time, the state legislature is the only entity capable of sufficiently investigating the election day failures. Lawmakers may look to do it themselves, but it may make more sense to hire an independent investigator to conduct the work. An ex-prosecutor or judge would make the most sense given their experience with conducting investigations and executing subpoenas (which the legislature has the authority to do). The cloud surrounding the election offices in Maricopa and Pinal won’t be lifted until a thorough and transparent investigation is completed.
We Must Defend and Enforce New Election Integrity Laws
It’s important to remember that in the last two legislative sessions, lawmakers and the governor did enact dozens of meaningful election reforms. Just last session, two of the most critical were signed. Together these two laws will ensure only qualified, U.S. citizens are able to register to vote (HB2492) and that only eligible voters remain registered by requiring regular voter roll maintenance (HB2243). Both laws went into effect on January 1st of this year.
Unsurprisingly, the Left (including the Biden administration) has filed multiple lawsuits in federal court to stop these laws that will prevent illegals from voting and clean up the voter rolls from impacting the 2024 election. HB 2492 and HB 2243 must be staunchly defended in court, but that is not likely to happen with Democrat Kris Mayes currently occupying the office of attorney general.
Recently, the Republican National Committee successfully intervened in the case, meaning the laws, now in effect, still have some protection. But the better news is that Republicans retained their majorities in both legislative chambers. Now we need them, the individuals who passed these bills into law, to intervene in these lawsuits as well and protect their work to ensure only qualified individuals are registered and voting in our elections.
We Should Proactively Litigate to Hold Election Officials Accountable
What can’t be denied from this past election is that counties and their election officials are acting lawlessly when it comes to implementing elections. It’s not always that we need new laws or reforms to existing statutes. First and foremost, what we need is for current laws to be enforced.
The Left has been involved in proactive lawfare for years, making every election cycle more and more litigious as they sue over every commonsense reform conservatives enact. Most importantly, these liberal groups do notwait for the election to start filing lawsuits. Unlike our side, the bulk of their legal activity occurs outside of election season, seeking change through the courts while most are not paying attention.
Our side must start engaging in this fight as well, to ensure that existing laws—like maintaining chain of custody for early ballots between the voting center and central count facility, not allowing early ballots to be injected into the system at a private vendor (Runbeck), and others that were potentially ignored in 2022—are faithfully adhered to moving forward.
We Need to Continue Pushing for Good Election Integrity Policy at the Legislature
Katie Hobbs is not likely to sign any good election integrity proposals, but that doesn’t mean the legislature should stop doing its job—legislating and governing on behalf of the voters who elected them.
For example, Arizona voters are tired of the weeks-long tabulation process, with drops of new ballots here and there over the course of two or more weeks. We deserve to know, or at least have a good idea, who has won on election night. Last session, Senator J.D Mesnard tried to accomplish that with SB1362 to require counties to tabulate the early ballots of voters who appear at a voting location on election day after showing ID. The bill did pass and was signed into law, but through the process it became permissive, simply allowing the counties to offer the opportunity to voters.
This session, lawmakers should mandate it. That would provide voters more options for casting their ballots, increase the number of voters showing ID before casting a ballot, and increase confidence and transparency in the process by eliminating the possibility of those ballots being adjudicated. This would allow voters to tabulate their own ballots themselves and work toward the goal of obtaining results on election night.
Reforms like this increase both access and security, making it easy to vote and hard to cheat. It is a commonsense proposal. There are and will be others too, and Republicans should work to get them passed and on to Katie Hobbs’ desk.
Whether it’s in litigation, through the legislature exercising its oversight authority, or lawmakers crafting commonsense reforms, there is still work to be done. And there is ample opportunity for Arizona voters to have secure elections in which they have confidence in the results, regardless of the outcome.
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The public school system in Arizona is a complete mess. But during the past few years, it really hit a new low.
Attempts to indoctrinate children with Critical Race Theory and radical gender theory have been spreading throughout our public school districts. COVID shutdowns have wreaked havoc on students’ education—especially low-income parents and children. In the meantime, public school spending surged during COVID while teacher pay didn’t keep pace. But that didn’t stop failed teachers’ unions like Red4ED from trying to use the “low teacher pay” narrative in their attempts to push more ridiculous tax increases on taxpayers like you.
Of course, all of this is only more infuriating when you consider that the majority of Arizona students continue to fail the statewide assessment. And ACT scores for Arizona students have fallen below the standards for our state universities. That’s why the Club made it a priority to drain the public school swamp in this past November’s election.
19 Club-Endorsed Candidates Won School Board Seats
Defeating the Left isn’t just about winning statewide races. If we are ever going to stop the radical woke agenda, local school board races are critical. Altogether, the Club endorsed 28 different candidates for school boards throughout the state, and 19 of them won a seat. When you consider that school boards have been overrun by leftist activists for years, this is a huge victory, especially in a city like Scottsdale.
Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) has been one of the worst offenders when it comes indoctrinating children with gender identity ideology. SUSD allows and even encourages students to replace their “deadname”—the birth name that individuals reject upon transitioning genders—with their preferred name on their school ID. On top of that, one Scottsdale principal required middle school teachers to attend grooming training without facing any accountability from the school board. Another Scottsdale teacher pushed radical sex theories that were not approved by the district. And the district also went on to promote a “Drag Queen Story Hour.”
But in this past November’s election, Club-endorsed candidates Amy Carney and Carine Werner won the two available seats to serve on the Scottsdale School Board. Both these moms have made it a commitment to root out controversial indoctrination programs and refocus the district on strengthening students in the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic. And they will serve as a crucial voice for parents throughout the city.
Tom Horne Will Replace Union Darling Kathy Hoffman as Superintendent
Along with the great success in local school board races, Republican Tom Horne triumphed over Kathy Hoffman in the race for Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction. Tom served in this same position from 2003 to 2011, and now he will make it a priority to stop indoctrination like Critical Race Theory, fight back against cancel culture, and improve student performance.
In addition, Tom has been a strong advocate for school choice and empowering parents—which stands in stark contrast to current Superintendent Kathy Hoffman. Kathy was a vocal opponent of the state’s recent law that expands Empower Scholarship Accounts (ESA) to all K-12 students. And she supported the failed Save Our Schools Arizona (SOSAZ) ballot initiative that sought to stop universal school choice. Hoffman was everything the radical left and K-12 spending lobby wanted in a candidate, and she lost.
Tom hasn’t wasted any time getting to work as our top education official. He has already appointed Christine Accurso, who led the Decline to Sign movement to stop SOSAZ’s ballot initiative, to be the Executive Director of the ESA division of the Department of Education. This was a critical hire given the bureaucratic roadblocks erected against the ESA program by the Hoffman regime.
Fixing the management and application process for the ESA program is an important step, but it’s just the beginning. Arizona’s public education system needs a significant overhaul, and the people of Arizona know it. Now, Tom Horne and the newly elected conservative board members need to get to work making that happen. And the GOP needs to build upon the momentum it created in winning the education debate.
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Not every outcome of November’s frustrating and poorly run election was a disaster. While Maricopa County certainly dropped the ball, and we await the results of any lawsuits and investigations, voters passed some important initiative reforms.
One of those came from Proposition 129, which earned 55 percent of the vote. This measure amends the Arizona Constitution to limit ballot initiatives to a single subject. It also requires the subject to be included in the title of the measure.
The passing of Prop 129 is critical because for years, out-of-state special interest groups have made it a habit to shove multiple provisions on many different subjects into their ballot initiatives. That would often lead to confusion for voters who didn’t always understand what exactly they were voting for or against. And it would put voters in the difficult position to vote on the entirety of an initiative even though they may support some parts of it and oppose others. Now, with the single subject rule, ballot initiatives will have the same requirement for bills to pass the state legislature. And voters will gain some much-needed clarity when they cast their vote.
But Prop 129 wasn’t the only important initiative reform to pass in this November’s election. In a big win for taxpayers across the state, Arizona voters also passed Prop 132. This measure requires a 60 percent majority vote of the people on any ballot measure that seeks to raise your taxes.
Requiring broader support like this puts a check on out-of-state special interests who want to increase Arizona’s taxes to fund their schemes. After all, just look what they tried to do with Prop 208 back in 2020. This disastrous piece of legislation passed with only 51% of the vote and would have made Arizona a high tax state had it not been for litigation challenging the constitutionality of the plan killing it once and for all. Now, any measure aimed to raise your taxes will require a super majority, just like it does at our state legislature. And Arizonans can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that it won’t be so easy to take more money out of their wallets.
Of course, the big loser in all of this is out-of-state special interests, who spent millions in an effort to defeat Props 129 and 132. In fact, one group that called themselves Will of the People Arizona, was so concerned with stopping these initiatives that it raised and spent around $2 million to defeat Prop 132 alone. Of course, they didn’t bother to tell voters that only $33 from their massive fundraising haul came from people who actually live in Arizona. The overwhelming majority of their cash came from unions and liberal groups residing in California and Washington, D.C.
But this time, the people of Arizona saw through the lies. They passed Props 129 and 132, which should help stop groups in others states from bringing their radical ideas to Arizona’s ballots. And that is a significant step to protect the future of our state.
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Maricopa County dropped the ball. They botched the election, and there is simply no way for politicians to gaslight their way out of it. After years of fearmongering from the media and the left that election integrity measures would suppress and disenfranchise voters, it turns out no one suppresses and disenfranchises voters quite like politicians and bureaucrats in Maricopa County.
Rather than taking accountability for their failures, they have rubbed their incompetence in the faces of frustrated voters, smugly downplaying their failure and patting themselves on the back, asserting that they made a “remarkable effort.”
All eyes were on this election. Everyone knew it would be contentious, that key races would be close, and that record levels of Republican voters would show up to vote in-person on election day. Given this, one would think election officials would go above and beyond to ensure every minute detail was ironed out so that the election process was beyond reproach.
Instead, within minutes of polls opening at 6 am, reports were coming in that tabulators were not accepting ballots. Quickly, the number of impacted voting centers grew to more than 60 out of the 223 that were open. And of the 95 voting centers that were open only on election day, nearly half were impacted.
It took seven hours for the County to figure out what was going on – that the printers weren’t printing correctly. Then it took another five and a half hours (just 30 minutes before the polls closed) to get every location back up and running. Oh yes, that’s remarkable – remarkably bad.
It wasn’t just long lines—though undoubtedly some voters just gave up and went home instead of dealing with the mess Maricopa County created. The biggest injustice was the actual disenfranchisement of voters.
Here’s how that happened. A voter signed into a voting center and filled out their ballot, but the tabulator couldn’t read it. They were told by official poll workers that they can either place it in “Door 3” and trust that the County will securely deliver it downtown later that night and accurately tabulate it, or they can spoil their ballot and go to another voting center with tabulators that actually work.
If they went with the latter option, as some did, they spoiled their ballot and walked out of the voting center. But when they arrived at the next one, they were told they had already voted, because they were never signed out of the first location. So, they were then told to cast a provisional ballot.
However, that ballot can’t be counted, and it wasn’t counted, because a provisional ballot is only counted if the person hasn’t already voted. Because of this, as soon as they left the first location, they were doomed, and they were disenfranchised.
We don’t yet know how many voters were stripped of their vote in this way. It could be hundreds, or it could be thousands. What we do know is that it’s impossible for the numbers to reconcile now.
Maricopa County has attempted to redirect blame by saying they provided a “Door 3” option, but they botched that as well. In at least two voting centers, they mixed the “Door 3” ballots that had not been tabulated with the ballots that had been tabulated. That meant retabulating all of the ballots from those locations, and then backing out the numbers from the original tally.
And as for those voters that were assured their “Door 3” ballots would be the first to be counted? Well, it wasn’t until Monday the 21st of November, 13 days after the election, that all election day ballots were finally counted.
Maricopa County’s catastrophic failure has only solidified the lack of trust in our election system. And all of this in the backdrop of a Recorder who just last year started his own PAC to campaign against candidates running in elections he oversees (a clear conflict of interest). A Recorder who donated to far-left political causes. And a Recorder who, just when early ballots were being mailed out by his office, illegally placed the thumb of government on the scale to campaign against commonsense voter ID requirements with taxpayer resources.
All of this could have been avoided if Maricopa County was serious about running a smooth election. The County could have implemented on-site tabulation for early ballots to help get results on election night. They could have tested the tabulators. They could have tested the printers. And they could have spent a little less time speaking from their Misinformation Board, hosting press conferences, and trolling people on Twitter and a little more time preparing for the election. Instead, voters were disenfranchised, and once again, Maricopa County became the laughingstock of the country.
Assuming this was gross negligence on the part of Maricopa County (and not intentional sabotage), the voters are entitled to a full investigation and a contest of the election. The Attorney General appears to have initiated an investigation, and we do anticipate litigation by some of the candidates that will force the County into court in the next couple of weeks. Make no mistake, the actions being taken by the AG and pending litigation would not be possible without the thousands of Arizona voters who reached out to the campaigns and law enforcement about their eyewitness accounts and experiences on election day. To those that stepped up to tell their stories, we thank you.
Also, there are efforts to protest the election results or to call for a “redo” of the election through some form of legislative action or by preventing certification, but the reality is that the only place that redress can be achieved is through the courts. We understand that awaiting legal remedies is frustrating, but that is the only mechanism in place under state law and the constitution for contesting election results or to challenge the illegal activities that occurred on election day.
Coinciding with litigation and a potential AG investigation, a statewide recount is set to begin in at least two races, one of which—the Attorney General race—includes candidates who are separated by 500 votes. The outcome in these close races will likely hinge on what is uncovered and discovered through litigation. And with it, hopefully some remedy will be provided for the disenfranchised voters on election day.
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Election Day is just a few days away. As you prepare, below is a full list of Free Enterprise Club endorsed candidates and our positions on eight of the ballot measures.
Statewide
Governor
Secretary of State
Attorney General
Treasurer
Kari Lake
Mark Finchem
Abe Hamadeh
Kimberly Yee
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Corporation Commission (vote for 2)
Tom Horne
Nick Myers
Kevin Thompson
Federal
US Senate
CD1
CD2
CD3
CD4
Blake Masters
David Schweikert
Eli Crane
Jeff Zink
Kelly Cooper
CD5
CD6
CD7
CD8
CD9
Andy Biggs
Juan Ciscomani
Luis Pozzolo
Debbie Lesko
Paul Gosar
Arizona State House
LD1
LD2
LD3
LD4
LD5
Selina Bliss
Christian Lamar
Alex Kolodin
Matt Gress
Jennifer Treadwell
Quang Nguyen
Joseph Chaplik
Maria Syms
LD7
LD8
LD9
LD10
LD11
David Marshall
Caden Darrow
Kathy Pearce
Barbara Parker
Tatiana Peña
Mary Ann Mendoza
Justin Heap
LD12
LD13
LD14
LD15
LD16
Terry Roe
Liz Harris
Travis Grantham
Jacqueline Parker
Rob Hudelson
Jim Chaston
Julie Willoughby
Laurin Hendrix
Neal Carter
LD17
LD19
LD21
LD23
LD25
Cory McGarr
Gail Griffin
Deborah McEwen
Michele Peña
Michael Carbone
Rachel Jones
Lupe Diaz
Tim Dunn
LD27
LD28
LD29
LD30
Kevin Payne
Beverly Pingerelli
Steve Montenegro
John Gillette
Ben Toma
Austin Smith
Leo Biasiucci
Arizona State Senate
LD1
LD2
LD3
LD4
LD7
Ken Bennett
Steve Kaiser
John Kavanagh
Nancy Barto
Wendy Rogers
LD8
LD9
LD10
LD13
LD14
Roxana Holzapfel
Robert Scantlebury
David Farnsworth
JD Mesnard
Warren Petersen
LD15
LD17
LD22 (Write-In)
LD23
LD27
Jake Hoffman
Justine Wadsack
Steve Robinson
Gary Snyder
Anthony Kern
LD29
Janae Shamp
County
Maricopa County Attorney
Rachel Mitchell
Local City and Town Council
Gilbert Town Council
Phoenix City Council District 6
Bobbi Buchli
Sam Stone
School Board
Cave Creek
Chandler
Deer Valley
Fountain Hills
Gilbert
Jackie Ulmer
Kurt Rohrs
Paul Carver
Libby Settle
Chad Thompson
Charlotte Golla
Tony Bouie
Madicyn Reid
Higley
Kyrene
Mesa
Paradise Valley
Roosevelt
Anna Van Hoek
Kristi Ohman
Rachel Walden
Sandra Christensen
Joseph Dailey
Roy Morales
Ed Steele
Lisa Farr
Eddy Jackson
Scottsdale
Vail
EVIT – District 5
Dysart
Peoria
Amy Carney
Anastasia Tsatsakis
Cien Hyatt Luke
Jennifer Drake
Heather Rooks
Carine Werner
Leroy Smith
Dawn Densmore
Devon Updegraff-Day
Prescott
Linda Conn (2-year term)
Michele Hamer (4-year term)
Judicial Retention
Arizona Supreme Court
Maricopa County Superior Court
Court of Appeals Division I
Hon. James P. Beene
Hon. Bradley Astrowsky
Hon. Cynthia J. Bailey
Hon. William G. Montgomery
Hon. Alison S. Bachus
Hon. Robert I. Brooks
Hon. Rusty D. Crandell
Hon. Jennifer Green
Hon. Michael J. Herrod
Hon. Joseph S. Kiefer
Hon. Susanna C. Pineda
Hon. Michael Z. Rassas
Hon. Tracey Westerhausen
Hon. Cassie Woo
Ballot Measures
Vote YES
Proposition 128
Proposition 129
Proposition 132
Proposition 309
Vote NO
Proposition 209
Proposition 211
Proposition 308
Proposition 310
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Right now, public unions are trying to fleece the taxpayers of Mesa. In addition to the dozens of candidates, judicial retention decisions, and statewide propositions, voters in Mesa will also decide on two amendments to their city Charter that will result in a shakedown of taxpayers and would insulate politicians from accountability.
The first, Prop 476, would give Mesa Unions special access to leverage for taxpayer-funded benefits behind closed doors. The other, Prop 477, removes accountability for wasteful spending, allowing unelected bureaucrats to spend money without council approval and letting elected politicians off the hook.
The “meet and confer” process requires the city to meet with unions in “good faith.” So, if the city doesn’t kowtow to the demands of the taxpayer-funded union bosses, they can threaten to sue the city for not engaging in good faith, resulting in costly litigation. In other words, good faith simply means the union bosses get what they want.
Thankfully, Mesa backed off and ended this crummy practice in 2017 when the Goldwater Institute informed them that it violated their Charter. Now, just five years later, the unions are coming back, trying to convince Mesa voters to amend the Charter to permanently allow them to negotiate these backroom deals with city bureaucrats that will cost taxpayers millions.
There’s a reason Mesa’s Charter currently prohibits it—and why neighboring towns like Gilbert prohibited it in 2014—to protect taxpayers and to prevent the city from becoming the next Phoenix with its $3.4 billion in pension debt.
Vote NO on Prop 477
Then there is Prop 477, also amending the city Charter, to allow unelected bureaucrats to spend thousands of taxpayer dollars without ever getting approval from the city council. Currently, city bureaucrats are limited to $25,000 in purchases without council approval. Prop 477 rips off that guardrail and allows the council to raise the cap however high it wants.
Just look to California, where the Westminster City Manager hired a consultant costing taxpayers $6,400 a month, which was below his purchasing limit of $175,000. The city council was never consulted and found out about the deal two months after the contract had been signed.
Prop 477 opens the floodgates for bureaucrats to spend in the dark, allowing politicians off the hook to wash their hands of unpopular purchases and preventing voters from reining in wasteful spending.
Propositions 476 and 477 are about empowering big unions and unelected bureaucrats to conduct more of the city’s business in the dark and out of the sight of taxpayers and their elected representatives. Residents of Mesa should resoundingly reject both to protect their hard-earned dollars and retain their power to hold politicians accountable at the ballot box.
Help Protect Freedom in Arizona by Joining Our Grassroots Network
Arizona needs to have a unified voice promoting economic freedom and prosperity, and the Free Enterprise Club is committed to making that happen. But we can’t do it alone. We need YOU!
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