The editors of the Arizona Republic editorialized about the Secretary of State, Michele Reagan: Our View: Reagan needs some quality control: Reagan has delivered more mistakes that heighten concerns about who – if anybody – is in charge of quality control at her office.
Republic columnist Laurie Roberts to pointed out the obvious. Another day, another Michele
Reagan screw-up:
Problems
were perhaps inevitable in an office where rank-and-file career employees –
people who know how to run an election – were basically run off their jobs in
order to make room for political pals. But they also point to a larger problem.
Ms Reagan seems to spend more time playing politics than on her role as the
state’s top elections chief – a position that would seem to call for fewer
partisan maneuvers, not more. Has there been a secretary of state who has played
more politics than Reagan? It seems there are visions of the ninth floor (read:
governor’s office) dancing in her head.
Why else would she have promptly switched sides on the “dark
money” issue once she was elected and said that contrary to her previous views,
no dark money disclosure is possible?
Why else would she have had
her elections director, Eric Spencer, rewrite Arizona’s
campaign-finance laws in a wholesale political move
to reduce disclosure, increase dark money spending, decriminalize certain kinds
of political corruption and legalize a litany of bad ideas that’ll make it
easier for our leaders to get down to the business of funny business?
Michele
Reagan is the subject of an ongoing inquiry by state Attorney General Mark Brnovich. The Arizona attorney general has hired outside counsel for Reagan
inquiry:
Attorney General Mark
Brnovich has appointed a former federal prosecutor to lead the investigation
into the Arizona secretary of state’s failure to mail publicity pamphlets in
advance of last month’s special election. The Democratic Party and voting
rights advocacy groups sued Arizona over the fiasco of the Presidential
Preference Election held in March.
Democrats sue Arizona over
voter access. The U.S. Justice Department is also
investigating Maricopa County in the PPE election fiasco. This past week, the Lawyers
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law filed a lawsuit seeking court supervision
of Arizona elections because our hapless Secretary of State is too partisan and
too incompetent to be trusted with the fair, impartial and competent
administration of elections.
Lawsuit Filed to Protect Voting Rights in Maricopa, Arizona
Following Recent Presidential Preference Primary Election Fiasco. To read the full complaint,
click here.
Elections
officials in Maricopa County and with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office
should be barred from conducting future elections without judicial oversight, a
lawsuit filed Thursday claims.
The suit, from the Lawyers’
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, cites the long lines at Maricopa County
polls during the March 22 presidential-preference election and alleges the
hours-long waits disenfranchised voters.
The
suit, filed on behalf of two voters who were stuck in those lines or were
discouraged by them, seeks judicial oversight for all elections up to and including
the 2020 presidential-preference election. It also asks the Maricopa County
Superior Court to determine that the voters’ civil rights were violated.
“We
need to ensure that all eligible voters are allowed to participate in our
democracy and do not face unnecessary barriers to the ballot box,” said Kristen
Clarke, president and executive director of the Washington D.C.-based
group.
The suit names Maricopa
County Recorder Helen Purcell, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and
Secretary of State Michele Reagan.
The
claims are state claims brought under the Arizona Constitution and Arizona
election law seeking injunctive relief. While the complaint references
the preclearance provisions of the Voting Rights Act, the complaint does not
allege any claim under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. (I assume that this
was a strategic decision to avoid removal to federal district court, and to
seek a speedier remedy in state court).
Arizonans
have lost confidence in state elections officials to conduct elections in a
fair, impartial and competent manner. Maybe the latest lawsuit will lead to
court supervision of upcoming elections for the primary and general elections. Source
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