By Camryn Sanchez || Arizona Capitol Times
In the wake of a disastrous primary, Pinal County officials are considering new laws for smoother future elections.
Rep. Neal Carter, R-San Tan Valley, said that he has faith in the county’s new recorder and elections director, but he’s pondering ways to restructure the county elections by changing state law. Carter is running for his House seat again in the November general election.
On the Aug. 2 primary Election Day, some Pinal County precincts ran out of ballots and did not print enough for everyone to vote. An unknown number of constituents left the polls without voting when they weren’t provided a ballot. Prior to the primary election, the county also sent out more than 60,000 ballots containing errors regarding town and city races.
Carter said that one of the ideas “floating around” in the county now is to have the county attorney sign off on election procedures before each election is conducted.
At a state level, the attorney general must approve the election procedures manual before the election takes place. This year that approval did not go smoothly. Attorney General Mark Brnovich did not sign off on the manual by his deadline of Dec. 31.
Brnovich waited until April to claim that the manual provided by Secretary of State Katie Hobbs was not “legally compliant” and filed suit against Hobbs. Yavapai County Superior Court Judge John Napper – appointed by Governor Doug Ducey – ruled that Brnovich failed to negotiate with Hobbs or respond on time. Napper threw out the complaint and the elections moved on.
Pinal County Attorney Kent Volkmer said that he hadn’t heard the idea of signing off on election procedures. “Just like the AG must sign off on the election manual at the state level, requiring the county attorney to sign off on the county level makes some sense,” he said in a text on Aug. 24.
Carter filed a lawsuit on Election Day to compel the county to print more ballots but is not going to follow up on it now, he said.
