Lawsuit spurs county to make elections changes

Maricopa County elections officials will have to make a few technical changes before the Nov. 2 general election after a judge determined that poll workers have been failing to follow proper vote-counting procedures.

The problems surfaced a week before the Aug. 24 primary election when a group of Arizona voters led by two Libertarian elections observers filed a complaint in Maricopa County Superior Court that accused the county of several elections missteps.

The complaint outlined eight specific allegations, including that the county’s poll workers had used improper hand-count procedures, had failed to sign election results printouts and had not allowed full observation of the central computer that tallies the county’s votes.

Maricopa County Judge Robert Oberbillig on Sept. 10 ruled against the county on one of the allegations, granted relief on another and dismissed the rest. But the judge made it clear that he expects full cooperation on election transparency, and the county has indicated it will address the remaining concerns.

“I do appreciate what the observers (plaintiffs) are trying to accomplish here,” Oberbillig said. “All of us appreciate that there are people willing to make sure that votes are counted and they are counted accurately.”

Oberbillig ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on the allegation that poll tapes weren’t always being signed by election workers.

Karen Osborne, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors’ elections director, said there had been a mistake with the voting software that removed the line where poll workers were supposed to sign the poll tapes. In addition, poll workers weren’t instructed to sign the tapes, she said. However, all poll workers in the general election will sign them, Osborne said.

Oberbillig also ordered Maricopa County election officials to comply with the Elections Procedures Manual’s observations standards, which state that observers must have an unobstructed view of the computer monitor that tallies the county’s votes.

Maricopa County’s election center provides a window for viewing the central computer where the votes are tallied. But it hasn’t always been easy to see the monitor because the view of the computer has been obstructed by the person using it, said Jim March, a political observer for the Libertarian party.

March and John Brakey are members of Audit Arizona, a non-partisan organization working to maintain secure, transparent and impartial elections. The pair has been investigating Maricopa elections since 2006. A month before this year’s primary election, the Libertarian party asked them to be political observers. After looking through their notes on Maricopa elections, March and Brakey decided to file the lawsuit.

“Democracy needs to be checked and validated,” Brakey said. “If we don’t, we get in trouble.”

The plaintiff’s attorney Brad Roach said Maricopa County also has agreed to address portions of the complaint that the judge ruled invalid.

Specifically, Roach said, the county has agreed to release unofficial vote totals with precinct-by-precinct information before the hand count begins. The hand count is conducted at 2 percent of precincts to ensure the accuracy of the electronic voting machines. The count has always been done without the public knowing the unofficial vote totals for each precinct, he said.

Maricopa County is the only county in the state that hasn’t released unofficial vote totals by precinct on election night, Roach said. When the hand count is done before the unofficial precinct level data is released to the public it blocks transparency and increases the possibility of election tampering, he said.

“What they did was pick the precincts they were going to count, counted them, then released the precinct by precinct information,” Roach said.

Amy Bjelland, Secretary of State elections services’ director, said that the Secretary of State’s website is using a new program that will provide precinct level data on election night for all counties, including Maricopa. The new program is more user-friendly so the public has easy access to vote totals, she said.

“We like the idea of more transparency,” Bjelland said.

Maricopa County has also agreed to change the way votes are transported to the election center, Osborne said. In past elections, only one person was required to bring election materials to the election center where votes are tallied. Now two people of different political parties will, when possible, bring elections materials to the center, she said. Amending the Election Procedures Manual to reflect these changes will increase security and transparency of the transportation process, she said.

Coleen Connor, assistant general counsel to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, said all of the changes could have been made without the lawsuit. She said the disruption could have been avoided if the plaintiffs would have discussed the matter with elections officials before filing a formal complaint.

“I’d hope in the future this could be settled without litigation,” Connor said.