Arizona Elections Director Amy Bjelland can’t read a statute: possible delay in Russell Pearce Recall

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

And this is the individual who oversees our elections in Arizona. Wow.

The Arizona Republic reports Russell Pearce recall may be pushed to 2012 due to error:

Arizona's elections director said she inadvertently gave an incorrect timetable to the organizers of a drive to recall controversial Senate President Russell Pearce, forcing a change in strategy in the historic recall effort.

Elections Director Amy Bjelland said she initially told recall organizer Randy Parraz that if he filed his signatures by May 25, there would be enough time to verify them and schedule a November election.

But Bjelland since has notified Parraz that Gov. Jan Brewer has 15 days to officially call an election if the signatures check out, not five.

The statute in question is A.R.S. Sec. 19-209. Order for special recall election:

A. If the officer against whom a petition is filed does not resign within five days, excluding Saturdays, Sundays and other legal holidays, after the filing as determined pursuant to section 19-208.03, the order calling a special recall election shall be issued within fifteen days and shall be ordered to be held on the next following consolidated election date pursuant to section 16-204 that is ninety days or more after the order calling the election.

The difference of 10 days in the recall timetable means Citizens for a Better Arizona already has missed the actual deadline, May 10, to turn in the signatures for a November election and can only hope for a March 13, 2012, election. (Maybe not).

Parraz and the organizers were hoping for a November election, which, if successful, would force Pearce out before the next session convenes. "I was not factoring in the governor's 15 days," Bjelland said. "It is what it is. I felt terrible about it."

In the working world this is called incompetence, not an error. Will there be any disciplinary action and corrective training ordered for Ms. Bjelland? Someone should Ask Secretary of State Ken Bennett.

Randy Parraz was more forgiving: "We know it was not intentional. We needed more time anyway," he said. What a swell guy!

Randy Parraz made a valid argument when he said "no governor, regardless of party, should have authority to drag out the scheduling of an election for political gain and that the process is flawed. If the signatures are validated, Pearce would be recalled by the time the issue reaches Brewer's desk." (In other words, calling the recall election is nondiscretionary under Article 1, Part 8, Sec. 3 of the Arizona Constitution and A.R.S. Sec. 19-208.03(A)(1) — the governor does not need 15 days to decide what is mandatory under law).

"That's where it's political. She can determine if it's November or March," he said. "The governor has no dog in this race. She has no decision-making role at all."

Then there was this nugget buried in the reporting about the Maricopa County Recorder's Office:

Bjelland said it probably would not help the recall committee to submit the petitions earlier than the May 31 deadline because the Maricopa County Recorder's Office plans to use the entire 60 days allowed by state statutes to validate or reject each signature.

Seriously? My undestanding from the Recall Pearce campaign is that there will be a sufficient number of signatures of which the campaign has been diligent to pre-verify that the signatures are qualified electors. There should be just over 8,000 pre-verified qualified electors' names on petitions submitted. There are several thousand more signatures of persons who wanted to sign petitions but who are not qualified electors in District 18.

We are talking about a single election here, how long could it possibly take to verify the 7,756 valid signatures needed? At that point the Recorder can stop verifying the remaining signatures and certify the election. What is the Maricopa County Recorder's Office going to do at this time next year when it will have multiple candidate petitions in multiple races to verify? This sounds suspiciously like footdragging to me.

If the Maricopa County Recorder's Office expeditiously verified the petition signatures and if the Governor issued the order for a recall election upon receipt of that verification instead of delaying the mandatory order for 15 days, this recall election could still occur in November.