Primary election results are being challenged in court by the Libertarian Party, which alleges three of its write-in candidates were unfairly disqualified for the general election.
Mike Kielsky, chairman, Arizona Libertarian Party, says the failure of county elections officials to accurately count the votes for write-in candidate Joe Cobb in the Congressional District 7 primary illustrates that votes for other Libertarian write-in candidates could have been missed.
After complaints were filed on Mr. Cobb’s behalf, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors approved an emergency canvass in certain precincts, which showed three write-in votes for Mr. Cobb were missed, giving him 13, one more than needed to be placed on the general election ballot.
For write-in candidates to qualify for the general election, they must get at least the number of votes equal to the number of signatures required to qualify for their races in the primary election. Both numbers are based on a percentage of the number of registered voters in their party.
Suit requests recount in 220 precincts
Libertarians filed a lawsuit Sept. 28 seeking to halt the printing of general election ballots and requesting a recount of write-in votes in approximately 220 precincts in legislative districts 10 and 15 and in a west Mesa Justice of the Peace district. The party also complains there were disparities between the number of votes Libertarians who ran for both precinct committeeman and another office received.
“The ballots are going to be printed by the time they get to court,” said Maricopa County Elections Director Karen Osborne. She said there was not enough time to check the write-in votes in the legislative and JP districts, but added she didn’t think there were problems with the count in those races.
She did admit, however, the error in Congressional District 7.
“We flat missed those three votes, she said on Sept. 26. “We made a mistake; we found three [votes] we had not accounted for.”
Write-in votes are supposed to be segregated at the polls and counted separately, Ms. Osborne said.
“At this point, there is no way to go back and unseal literally hundreds of precincts and hold up the ballot printing eight days before early balloting,” she said.
Party chair: Treating elections like ‘horsehoes’
Mr. Kielsky said, “The Maricopa County Elections Department has failed to do an adequate job of counting all the write-in votes. Are you telling me they didn’t miss a single write-in vote in 100 precincts?
“That’s a problem because they’re telling us we are not going to spend resources on looking further…” he said. “They treat elections like horseshoes or hand grenades — close enough, right?”
Said Ms. Osborne, “Everybody in the world will tell you they will write your name in, but very few people actually take the time to do that.”
Mr. Kielsky failed to qualify for the JP election in Mesa, as did Senate candidates Dan Poland in District 10 and John Williams in District 15.
Nine Libertarians, two Democrats and one Republican qualified as write-in candidates for the Nov. 7 general election.
The Libertarian Party registered around 19,000 voters for the primary. .
Ms. Kielsky said most Libertarian candidates are write-ins because the party is not well organized and is short of money and activists.
Barry Hess, the party’s vice chairman, is a candidate for governor.
The deadline for new write-in candidates for the general election was Sept. 28.
FYI:
Write-in candidates who qualified for general election as of Sept. 25:
• Ronald Harters, Libertarian, Congressional Dist. 4
• Jason Blair, Libertarian, CD 6
• Joe Cobb, Libertarian, CD 7
• Terry Dunn, Libertarian, State Senate, Dist, 1
• Noah Harris, Democrat, State Senate, Dist. 3
• Rachel Kielsky, Libertarian, State Senate, Dist. 18
• Sue Dolphin, Democrat, State Representative, Dist. 4
• Mike Renzulli, Libertarian, State Rep., Dist. 14
• Richard Buck, Libertarian, State Rep., Dist. 15
• William Wheat, Republican, State Rep., Dist. 15
• Jack Heald, Libertarian, State Rep. Dist. 20
• Edward Schwebel, Libertarian, State Rep. Dist. 22