Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ Election Manual Is Filled with Unlawful Changes—Ducey and Brnovich Must Reject Them

by admin | Oct 9, 2021 | Elections, News and Updates

Laws are meaningless if they aren’t enforced, are misapplied or misconstrued. The duly elected Arizona legislature crafts and passes election bills, and the Governor signs them into law. The Secretary of State, however, is tasked with prescribing “rules to achieve and maintain the maximum degree of correctness, impartiality, uniformity and efficiency” in implementing those laws.

This is done through the Elections Procedures Manual (EPM). But instead of crafting this with “impartiality” to attain the “maximum degree of correctness” Secretary of State Katie Hobbs seems intent on subverting state law in some instances, obfuscating in others, and as highlighted in a previous article, doing an end-run around a United States Supreme Court decision that upheld an Arizona election integrity practice.

The good news is that Hobbs doesn’t have unilateral authority to do this. She was required to submit this draft manual to Attorney General Brnovich and Governor Ducey by October 1st. Both have to sign off on the draft manual for it to go into effect. If they decline, we stick with the 2019 manual and Hobbs’s changes die.

Sending Illegally Registered Non-Citizens Instructions on How to Re-Register to Vote

Until the 2020 election, the state was operating under the manual from 2014 produced by then Secretary of State Ken Bennett. This is because Secretary Michelle Reagan did not submit a draft in 2016 and in 2018 Ducey declined to approve her changes.

Some areas of law have not changed since then, but the procedures manual has. One of these instances is around noncitizens who are registered to vote, individuals most often listed as “federal only” voters.

The 2014 manual requires the Secretary of State to send County Recorders juror questionnaires they receive on which an individual has indicated they are not a US citizen. The manual instructs Recorders to check if the individual is registered to vote and, if so, cancel the registration. Further, it encourages Recorders to then notify the County Attorney or Attorney General. Why? Because the individual has either perjured themselves on the juror form (a crime) or they are not a US citizen and fraudulently registered to vote (also a crime).

Compare this to Katie Hobbs’s manual. In it, Hobbs instructs Recorders to send these individuals a notice informing them of their indication of not being a citizen on a juror questionnaire and that they have 35 days to send in Documentary Proof of Citizenship (DPOC). If they send in DPOC, they become a “full ballot” voter. If they don’t, then the registration will be cancelled.

However, Hobbs’s manual goes a step further by instructing Recorder’s to send a notice of cancellation to the individual that actually gives instructions on how to re-register. And it has no mention of informing the County Attorney or Attorney General to investigate what has been committed, likely a felony act.

End Run Around Brnovich v. DNC

In Arizona, counties can conduct elections by precinct polling locations or vote centers. For precinct polling, voters can only vote in their assigned precinct. If they show up at a wrong location, election workers are instructed to direct the voter to the correct precinct. If the voter insists on voting, they can cast a provisional ballot instead of going to the correct location. However, they are informed that unless they prove they are eligible to vote in that precinct, the ballot won’t tallied.

Democrats sued over the law. The case was taken all the way to the US Supreme Court and this summer the Court decided. The opinion in Brnovich v. DNC completely upheld this out-of-precinct prohibition. In it, Justice Alito writes “precinct-based voting has a long pedigree in the United States, and the policy of not counting out-of-precinct ballots is widespread.”

But it seems Katie Hobbs doesn’t care about what the highest court in the nation says, because she inserted a few short lines in the manual this year directing election officials to duplicate these provisional ballots and tally the votes for elections for which they are eligible. This is a total end-run around state law and the US Supreme Court. It’s also a practice Justice Alito expressly mentioned in the majority opinion, writing that “partially counting out-of-precinct ballots would complicate the process of tabulation and could lead to disputes and delay.” This change must be rejected.

Delayed Cleanup of Mail-In Ballot Rolls (SB1485)

It doesn’t stop there. This past session, Republican legislators passed SB1485. The law requires counties to send a notice to voters on the Permanent Early Voter List (now Active Early Voter List) who have not voted in any election for the past two election cycles. If the voter fails to respond to the notice within 90 days, they are removed from AEVL and would have to vote in-person or re-enroll in the program to receive a mail-in ballot.

Though disagreement exists about whether this bill allows counties to look “retroactively” at the last two election cycles of non-voting to immediately start sending notices, or whether they must wait for a voter to not vote in 2022 and 2024 before sending a notice, many lawmakers who passed it and the organizations who advocated for its passage, SB1485 was always intended to take effect immediately. It is a reasonable interpretation of the bill and the intent of the bill’s sponsor.

A top election lawyer in the nation agrees. Hans von Spakovsky, whom President Trump appointed to his Presidential Advisory Council on Election Integrity in 2017, served on the Federal Election Commission, and was a litigator in the Justice Department, opined that “SB1485 will go into effect immediately after passage, not in 2026 as some have claimed.”

Attorney General Brnovich should issue his own opinion affirming this interpretation and require this change in the EPM, before signing his approval.

Procedures for Signature Verification

Lastly, with the findings in the Audit Report and a recent article about Cochise County Recorder David Stevens on ballot envelopes, it is apparent that there is a lack of uniformity in how signatures on early ballot envelopes are verified and that there are areas of concern.

For instance, the report from EchoMail and the most recent response from Maricopa County indicate that before election workers look at mail in ballots, a private company scans them all, downgrades the image quality, and then hands them over to election officials. The County then compares these downgraded scans of ballot envelopes to the signature on file to, somehow, come to the conclusion that the handwriting matches. In Cochise County, Stevens says they compare the actual ballot envelope to voter registration files, not low-quality scans.

Unfortunately, the process isn’t spelled out in statute, so the EPM is used to ensure procedures are in place to comply with the laws that do exist – and that there is uniformity. Nowhere in statute or in the EPM does it say counties could or should use a private company to scan these and that the scans, instead of the physical envelopes, can or should be used for signature verification.

This is certainly an area that Brnovich should push to ensure the procedures in the EPM first and foremost comply with statute and the spirit of the law, but secondly are uniformly enforced around the state.

What We Can Do

These are just four areas of concern, and there are many others.

The Free Enterprise Club will be sending a letter to the Attorney General and Governor Ducey with a detailed list of issues in the EPM, but they need to hear from constituents too. That’s why Arizonans should let them know that we want an election system where it easy to vote, and hard to cheat. That means that Governor Ducey and Attorney General Brnovich should REJECT every proposed change by Katie Hobbs that either violates state law or attempts to rewrite it. They can stop this from happening, and we need to encourage them to do so.

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Arizona Audit Recommends Universal Voter ID—Just Like We’ve Been Saying for Years

by admin | Oct 1, 2021 | Elections, News and Updates

Easy to vote and hard to cheat. That should be the benchmark for every single election we have.

Voters should not have to choose between having a secure election or having an accessible election. They can have both. And in Arizona, we’ve certainly made our elections accessible.

But that hasn’t always been the case with the security of our elections. And the results of the Arizona audit issued in September show just that.

• • 5,047 people voted in more than one county.
  • Just under 28,000 ballots were possibly cast by voters who had moved prior to the election.
  • More than 17,000 Early Voting Ballots were duplicates.

These are significant issues that need to be addressed. Thankfully, the audit report made multiple recommendations that are common-sense election integrity policies.

And the most important one is something we’ve been saying for years:

Mail-in voting should incorporate an objective standard of verification for early voter identification, similar to the ID requirements required for in person voting.

Yes. The Arizona audit recommended instituting universal ID. And that’s why right now is the perfect time for the Arizonans for Voter ID Act.

 This initiative for the November 2022 ballot would:

• • Improve existing in-person voter ID.
  • Establish voter ID for mail-in ballots.
  • Deter ballot harvesting by enhancing voter ID requirements.
  • Provide a FREE voter ID option to lawfully registered Arizona voters who need it for voting.

Think about what this would mean for future elections. For one, we would no longer need to rely on a highly subjective process to verify signatures, which can often lead to illegal votes being counted and legal votes not being counted.

In addition, this initiative would make it nearly impossible for someone to vote in our state after they had moved.

And to top it all off, requiring universal voter ID would not be cumbersome.

The people of Arizona already provide basic identification in their daily lives to purchase alcohol or cigarettes, obtain a driver’s license, board a commercial flight, donate blood, open a bank account, purchase a firearm, receive unemployment benefits, obtain auto insurance, purchase or rent a home, and more.

It’s commonsense that we should we require the same for something as important as voting in an election. Thankfully, most Arizonans agree.

Statewide polling from earlier this year shows that an overwhelming majority of Arizona voters support voter ID requirements. In fact, every race and ethnicity support voter ID, along with the majority of Republicans, Independents, and Democrats.

Now, the audit’s recommendation makes it clear. It’s time for universal voter ID in Arizona. It would ensure that our elections are still easy to vote in while making it that much harder to cheat. And that’s something every single resident in Arizona should be able to get behind.

You Can Make a Difference

Elections should be both accessible and secure. That’s why universal voter ID is so important. We must protect the ballot of every qualified Arizona voter and ensure the integrity of our elections.

Find out more about this initiative and what YOU can do to ensure it makes it onto the November 2022 ballot.

Arizona Audit Recommendations Are Common-Sense Election Integrity Policies

by admin | Sep 30, 2021 | Elections, News and Updates

The much anticipated audit report has finally been released, and it has proven to not be a disappointment for those seeking an in-depth look at election security and potential fraud in Maricopa County.

Unsurprisingly, the establishment media spent little time actually reviewing the 90-page report, instead focusing on the Presidential recount figures showing Biden still winning Maricopa County.

This lazy analysis ignored the more critical aspects of the audit, including the real, substantive findings that identified legitimate issues with our election process and a comprehensive list of election reform recommendations.

The audit recommendations are not based upon wild conspiracies, as the left and corporate media might want you to believe. Instead, they are measured, reasonable, common-sense election integrity policies that will ensure that every legal vote is properly counted. In fact, most of the recommended reforms from the audit are election law changes that the Free Enterprise Club has been urging lawmakers to adopt for years. We knew these were critical before—the audit findings confirm and show the necessity of them.

So, what are the most critical election integrity reforms recommended by the audit?

In-Person Voters Moved Prior to Registration Deadline

Among the most concerning findings is that potentially 2,382 voters moved out of Maricopa County prior to the registration deadline yet they still cast a ballot in-person. The audit team relied on data provided by Maricopa County and compared it with best-in-class commercial data to find individuals who moved before the election but appear on the voted list provided by the county.

Because the data indicating voters moved is third-party, commercial data, this might not be perfectly accurate. That’s why further investigation by the Attorney General is warranted.  But it is important to highlight that this is in-person voting, not vote by mail. All systems have vulnerabilities and front-end security is most effective in limiting fraudulent and illegal voting.

Recommendation: Voter Roll Maintenance

To that end, the audit team recommended changes to laws regulating voter registration maintenance. Specifically, comparing the voter rolls to the National Change of Address database both 90 days before an election and a week prior to early ballots being mailed to check for individuals who have left the state along with regular voter roll maintenance.

Doing this would help ensure that only qualified electors, which requires residence in the county, would be on voter rolls at the polls preventing unqualified electors from casting a ballot. This is an issue The Club pushed to reform last session with SB1106 which was sponsored by Senator Mesnard and would have required counties to cancel voter registrations for individuals who register to vote in another jurisdiction.

Mail-In Voters Moved Prior to Ballots Being Sent

In the same vein, the audit team found 23,344 mail-in ballots potentially cast from voters who had moved prior to October 5th, when ballots were first mailed. The majority of these, 15,035, were moves within Maricopa County, but a total of 6,591 were from voters who moved out of the state prior to October 5th, and 1,718 moved to another county in Arizona.

State law does not allow these ballots to be forwarded. There is a mechanism for voters to make a one-time request for a ballot at a different address, but this volume of ballots being sent to individuals who had moved—especially the 6,591 who moved to another state—and were cast and counted is more than concerning.

Recommendation: Early Voting List and Voter Roll Maintenance

As with the last, the audit team recommends more comprehensive voter roll maintenance. Ensuring only lawful, qualified electors are registered and on the voter rolls is one of the best deterrents of fraud and illegal voting. Doing a check against different databases 90 days before an election and a week prior to ballots being mailed will ensure that ballots are not being mailed to voters who are no longer qualified and sent to addresses where they no longer live.

Ballot Affidavits Missing Signatures

The last area deserving spotlight is the initial review of the mail-in ballot affidavits, more recognizable to voters as the envelope where they sign. The Club has supported an in-depth look at these from the beginning, and this first review confirms the need to look even further.

EchoMail, who was contracted by the Senate a few weeks ago to conduct the first look, analyzed the images of ballot envelopes provided by Maricopa County. They came up with a count of verification ready affidavits that was 9,589 ballots fewer than what Maricopa County reported in the official canvass.

This is because they received over 17,322 duplicate envelopes, found 1,919 lacking a signature (compared to Maricopa’s report of 1,455), and another 2,580 with “scribbles.” EchoMail was provided with 1,929,240 affidavits, bringing the total that were ready for signature verification to 1,907,419 compared to Maricopa County’s tally of 1,917,008 that was reported as ready for verification.

Recommendation: Universal Voter ID (Audit Report Supports Voter ID Ballot Initiative)

Unfortunately, EchoMail wasn’t contracted to analyze signatures to audit the performance and accuracy of the county’s process. But the major discrepancy between Maricopa County and the Audit Team is unsurprising. 

The process used to verify signatures is highly subjective which makes it an inconsistent measure of identity verification which can lead to both illegal votes being counted, and legal votes not being counted.  Rightly so, the audit team recommended reforms that require mail-in ballot affidavits include objective identification requirements like those required for individuals voting in person.

This would mean a universal voter ID requirement in Arizona, something that 82% or Arizona voters support. And it is exactly what the Arizonans for Voter ID Act ballot initiative would do—ensure that no matter when you vote, where you vote, or how you vote, identification will be required. It was filed well before the report was released because it is good and commonsense election integrity policy. Now the audit team, after spending months analyzing the election, recommends it and bolsters its necessity.

Additional Findings

These aren’t the only three issues. The audit report details election data that was potentially deleted the night before the County commissioned review of Dominion machines, for which the team recommends legislation for better chain of custody for data and ensuring unique login credentials for everyone who has access to it.

The report also finds that potentially 9,041 more ballots were returned than received by voters, 5,295 voters who potentially voted in multiple counties, a 1,551 discrepancy between votes in the canvass and voters in the county’s final “voted” file, and 86,391 voters who voted but cannot be found in the commercial data source used, among others.

The Path Forward

The county has responded to many of these, but they should be fully investigated by the Attorney General as suggested in Senate President Karen Fann’s letter to Brnovich which included all of the reports and related data for launching an official investigation.

Additionally, the importance of front-end security in our election processes is more apparent than ever. Potential fraud and illegal voting were found with both in-person and mail-in voting. The best deterrent and prevention for both is strong ID requirements and clean and current voter rolls.

These recommendations were repeated throughout the report and are reforms that the Club has supported for years. The Governor and lawmakers should convene a Special Session to pass these legislative recommendations and others made by the audit team.

If they can’t do that, they must come into the Regular Session in January ready to quickly craft and pass these into law in time for the 2022 elections. Voters want a system that is accessible and safeguarded from fraud—where it is easy to vote, and hard to cheat. This report and its recommendations confirm we can maintain our accessibility while making reforms to ensure better security.

You Can Make a Difference

Elections should be both accessible and secure. That’s why universal voter ID is so important. We must protect the ballot of every qualified Arizona voter and ensure the integrity of our elections.

Find out more about this initiative and what YOU can do to ensure it makes it onto the November 2022 ballot.