By Brian Wright | Maricopa Monitor
FLORENCE — Concern about the fairness of elections in Pinal County caused spirited debate at a Board of Supervisors meeting last week.
A new elections system is on track to be installed in Coolidge before the August primary election, but an observer must be present during the installation. Wednesday’s debate regarded what person or entity should serve in that role.
Instead of naming an observer, the board voted unanimously to table the agenda item, pushing the decision off to a later date.
On the evening of Feb. 3, a fire destroyed the Pinal County Elections Department warehouse at Sixth and Main streets in downtown Florence. About $1.2 million of elections equipment was destroyed in the fire, according to Pinal County Public Information Officer Joe Pyritz. The loss of that equipment necessitated the
installation of new equipment, which will likely be a high-speed central ballot scanning system.
The person or entity involved in observing the equipment installation should have a background in IT, said County Recorder Virginia Ross.
“We need someone who is savvy enough … (who) can look at the requirements and understand the capabilities of the system, and be able to understand that the system works the way that it’s supposed to work,” she said.
The observer would also check to make sure nothing was installed that could “some- how change or alter the results” of votes.
The observer can’t be an employee in the county elections or the recorder’s offices, but no restriction was placed on having a county employee from another department be the observer.
Supervisor Pete Rios of Dudleyville said he was opposed to appointing a county employee as an observer because he preferred a more independent person. He asked if there was a state or federal government agency with experience in
monitoring elections that could fit the bill.
Tom Bean of Casa Grande told the board he shared Rios’ concern and wanted to make sure the elections system displayed the utmost integrity. He said he was one of the observers when the last elections system was installed on Main Street in Florence.
Bean recommended having the Republican and Democrat party chairmen each appoint two people — a primary observer and an alternate.
