Arizona Secretary of State

New complaint filed against Secretary of State Michele Reagan – will the AG act this time?

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I previously posted about the legal travails of our hapless Secretary of State, Michele Reagan. GOP Culture of Corruption: Secretary of State Michele Reagan must go.

This week we learned “Oops! … I did it again.” Reagan’s office skips election manual:

MicheleReaganSecretary of State Michele Reagan did not compile a new election procedures manual for the 2016 cycle, perhaps the first time in decades, if not longer, that the office did not release the biennial publication that instructs county and local officials on the conduct of elections.

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State law requires the secretary of state to submit the manual for review to the attorney general and governor “not fewer than ninety days before each election,” a deadline that has already passed for the 2016 primary election. The manual must be issued no less than 30 days before each election, which some county election officials say is no longer feasible.

Without a new manual, county election officials are now using the 2014 version.

Several county election officials say they can’t ever recall a two-year election cycle in which the Secretary of State’s Office hasn’t issued a new manual. Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell said she doesn’t believe the state has skipped a manual for an election cycle at least since she took office in 1989.

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Arizona Special Election 2016 results on Prop. 123 and 124

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Today was the Arizona special election for Prop. 123 and 124.  123 is the education funding amendment and 124 is the public retirement systems amendment.  Early results from Arizona Secretary of State: www.azsos.gov Looks like from the early returns that Prop. 123 is winning, 51% to 49% (but too close to call), as not all … Read more

IOKIYAR: Secretary of State violates election laws with impunity and no accountability

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Earlier this week, attorney Tom Ryan filed a complaint with the Secretary of State and the Attorney General seeking to void the May 17 Special Election and reschedule it to the August primary election or to the November general election, Complaint (.pdf), because the Secretary of State had failed to mail publicity pamphlets regarding the election to over 200,000 households affecting over 400,000 voters.

Ryan cited a law signed into law last year by Governor Doug Ducey, which requires “strict compliance” with requirements for the referendum process. Secretary of State Michele Reagan herself advocated for the law.

MicheleReaganReagan’s office conceded that it had violated the law. The facts are not in dispute. Reagan’s office also engaged in a cover up not pro-actively disclosing it’s violation of law until it was later discovered, but that’s another matter.

Reagan’s response to Ryan’s complaint  effectively boiled down to “Yeah I violated the law, so whaddya gonna do about it? The election is not going to be canceled.“Reagan won’t cancel next week’s special election.

Which put the ball in the court of Attorney General Mark Brnovich. Stephen Lemons of the Phoenix New Times reports, Attorney General Says Secretary of State Broke Law, but Won’t Sue to Halt Special Election:

An angry Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich told reporters on Thursday that Secretary of State Michele Reagan “did indeed violate Arizona law” in not sending out hundreds of thousands of publicity pamphlets regarding Tuesday’s special election. But the AG said he won’t go into court to stop the election from taking place.

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Complaint filed to delay Special Election over Secretary of State’s failure to ‘strictly comply’ with election laws

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MicheleReaganArizona’s queen of voter suppression, Secretary of State Michele Reagan, has demonstrated once again that she is totally incompetent as the chief elections officer of Arizona.

In March, there was the fiasco of the Presidential Preference Election in Maricopa County. There is now a U.S. Justice Department investigation and a lawsuit by the Democratic Party and voting rights organizations over that screw up.

And now there’s this: Lawyer to seek Prop. 123 postponement after 200,000 election pamphlets delayed:

Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan’s office failed to send out publicity pamphlets for next week’s special election to more than 200,000 households with multiple voters in all but Pima and Maricopa counties, her spokesman said Monday.

Reagan spokesman Matt Roberts said the pamphlets should have reached voters 10 days before early voting started on April 20 and blamed a private vendor for the problem. By the time the mistake was discovered and new voter guides mailed and received, it was May 6.

Roberts didn’t say why the public wasn’t notified when the problem was discovered more than two weeks ago.

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SCOTUS upholds state legislative district redistricting plan (updated)

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Every challenge the Arizona Republican Party has made to the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (AIRC) redistricting plan for Arizona has ended in failure.

SupremeCourtThe latest attempt has again ended in failure.

Today the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in Harris v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (.pdf) rejecting the challenge to legislative districts from the Original North Phoenix Tea Party founder Wesley Harris. Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan  filed an amicus brief in support of Harris. Attorney General Mark Brnovich had to argue in favor of the Secretary of State at oral argument before the Court.

A three judge panel of the U.S. District Court for Arizona, by a vote of 2 to 1, entered a judgment for the AIRC. The majority found that “the population deviations were primarily a result of good-faith efforts to comply with the Voting Rights Act . . . even though partisanship played some role.” 993 F. Supp. 2d 1042, 1046 (Ariz. 2014). Appellants sought direct review in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Justice Breyer delivered the unanimous opinion of the Court:

The Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause requires States to “make an honest and good faith effort to construct [legislative] districts . . . as nearly of equal population as is practicable.” Reynolds, 377 U. S., at 577. The Constitution, however, does not demand mathematical perfection. In determining what is “practicable,” we have recognized that the Constitution permits deviation when it is justified by “legitimate considerations incident to the effectuation of a rational state policy.” Id., at 579.

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