Rep. Russell Pearce says a hurry-up schedule to get general election ballots to the printer forced a judge to rule too quickly in the District 20 primary election recount last September.

In order to make sure there is ample time for recounts in future elections, he has drafted legislation to shift the primary election to August.

“There’s nothing more important than our elections,” the District 18 Republican said.

H2399 would shift the primary election from eight weeks before the general election to 12 weeks before, essentially giving elections officials and the courts an extra month to solve any problems that arise.

Lisa Hauser, one of the top elections attorneys in the state who was involved in last year’s District 20 race, said there wasn’t enough time to find answers in the case – among them, why 489 new votes were recorded in the recount – because of the pressure to get general election ballots to the printer on time.

The trial judge had to make a ruling quickly, Ms. Hauser said, and the end result was that her client, Anton Orlich, lost by 13 votes, after the initial tally showed him leading eventual winner John McComish by four.

“It just kind of left a bad taste in some mouths,” she said.

Ms. Hauser said she met with Mr. Pearce and other legislative leaders who were curious about the discrepancy in the number of votes cast. Mr. Pearce says this bill is a direct response to that meeting and that race.

Because Arizona has an extremely late primary election – one of the latest in the country, in fact – Ms. Hauser said holding the primary earlier is a good solution.

“Just as a systemic change,” she said, “it seems like a good idea.”

Election Official Calls Move Helpful

Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborn agrees, saying the current schedule is very tightly arranged and the earlier the primary election is held, the better.

“Moving back the primary would be very helpful,” she said. “When we have our challenges…then everything is in such a pushed, pushed, pushed mode, everything is very difficult.”

Ms. Osborn said she could not think of any problems that would be created for her office by holding the primary election earlier, and that doing so would in fact allow her staff to do a “better job.”

Moving the primary is not a new notion. When Ms. Hauser worked for the Secretary of State’s Office in the 1990s, there was a movement to move the election from September to May. That drastic of a shift was problematic because the Legislature often remains in session well into May, she said, but she doesn’t see many arguments against the four-week change suggested by Mr. Pearce.

Traditionally, state and local governments slow down in August, as many Arizona residents take trips to cooler climes. Ms. Hauser said that is not as large a concern now as in the past because many schools have adopted modified schedules that include August classes.

“Kids are starting school in August – people tend to be back in August,” she said.

In addition, she points out that the proliferation of early voting doesn’t require voters to physically be here on Election Day.

The bill would also require the Secretary of State’s Office to establish a standard error rate for vote-counting equipment. If the number of votes registered in the recount is different than the original count and is greater than the error rate, a second recount would be performed and the courts would investigate the tabulation error.

In September’s District 20 recount, county elections officials attributed the 489 new votes to a more sensitive machine that picked up ballots filled out incorrectly – some with marker, others with eyeliner, yet others done in crayon – that were missed in the original count.

Ms. Hauser said the difference amounted to an 18 per cent increase in the number of votes counted on one particular machine, a difference that raised eyebrows and shouldn’t be acceptable.

A representative of the vote-counting machine’s manufacturer was not able to testify in Mr. Orlich’s court challenge of the recount, but Ms. Hauser said she spoke with a recently retired employee of the manufacturer who told her it sounded like the county had “a bad machine.”

Deputy Secretary of State Kevin Tyne said his office has not taken a formal position on the bill, but he did say there was a general benefit to holding the election earlier. A member of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s Standards Board, Mr. Tyne said the Secretary of State’s Office would likely not address the error rate issue until the Standards Board sets a federal error rate for vote-counting machines.

“We’re going to wait and see what the federal standards are instead of reinventing the wheel,” he said.

The implementation of Proposition 200 may also create more controversy at the polls, as voters will have to show identification to cast ballots. The Motor Vehicle Division does not automatically issue new licenses and identification cards when it receives a change of address, Ms. Hauser said. Even though a voter resides in the district in which he or she is voting, a driver’s license may not reflect that, Ms. Hauser said, leading to a higher-than-usual number of provisional ballots.

“The more that kind of stuff occurs, the more they can’t count election night,” she said. “The more breathing room they have, the better.” —