Arizona attorney general won't halt May 17 election, launches inquiry into pamphlet error

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said Thursday that he will not seek a postponement of next week's special election over officials' failure to distribute election pamphlets to 200,000 Arizona households.

But saying he's frustrated "we can't get things done the right way" when it comes to elections, Brnovich said he has launched an inquiry into why the error occurred and why Secretary of State Michele Reagan did not immediately notify the public of the problem.

Reagan had known since April 22 that the pamphlets weren't sent to some voters, but she only went public with that information in a  May 6 media interview. The pamphlets describe the initiatives, present pro and con arguments on the issues, and list where voters can cast their ballots.

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Brnovich said Reagan's office violated state statute, but there is no "legal remedy" to deal with the violation.

"She failed to do her duty," Brnovich said of Reagan. "She herself and her staff have admitted that they didn't comply with the law."

Brnovich said more than 700,000 early ballots have been returned in the lead-up to the election, and those votes should be counted.

"We don't want to disenfranchise people that have already voted," he said. "To me, I'm as frustrated as anyone. I like to go into court – I want to go into court. I wish there was a better remedy."

Tuesday's ballot contains two constitutional amendments: Proposition 123 and Proposition 124. Early voting has been underway for 2½ weeks. The households that did not receive the pamphlets are located outside Maricopa and Pima counties.

Brnovich questioned why Reagan did not immediately widely notify the public of the problems with the pamphlet distribution.

"Are there other violations of law that we don't know about, when did the Secretary know about this, why didn't they notify the public sooner? So I think there are a lot of unanswered questions. ... I'm going to work on getting to the bottom of it ...

"The next question we're going to ask is: Why did it take so long to notify the public?"

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Brnovich said he is worried elections that "aren't being done competently," could result in the U.S. Department of Justice or the federal government "coming in and taking over Arizona elections because people seem to be incompetent."

A lawsuit in federal district court already seeks federal oversight, stemming from the conduct of the March 22 presidential preference election and new laws that ban people from returning another voter's signed and sealed ballot.

The attorney general said he told Reagan of the inquiry moments before a noon news conference where he announced his decision.

Reagan spokesman Matt Roberts said the office is "open and amenable" to an investigation, and somewhat relieved the attorney general found there is no legal remedy -- something Reagan's office had concluded after attorney Tom Ryan filed a complaint Tuesday.

But there was some annoyance that Brnovich acted so quickly, given that he had asked Reagan's office for its response to Ryan's complaint that the election needed to be rescheduled for a later date.

"We had intended to supply one by the end of business today," Roberts said. "We were surprised the AG went out and held a press conference first."

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Ryan, who had asked Brnovich to take the matter to court, said he respected the difficulty Brnovich faced with the issue, given there are only three business days left before the election.

Ryan said he would review the attorney general's conclusion and decide what, if anything, he can do.

"I don't know what that would be, if anything at all," said Ryan.

Ryan, a Chandler attorney, on Tuesday asked Brnovich to seek a court ruling to cancel the election and reschedule it for later this year because of the failure of Reagan's office to distribute the required publicity pamphlets.

Attorney seeks to delay special election, argues pamphlet error disenfranchised voters

Ryan had proposed officials move the two propositions to either the Aug. 30 state primary election or the Nov. 8 general election. He also asked that the hundreds of thousands of ballots that have already been returned by voters on the early voting be considered void.

Bryan Jeffries, campaign chairman of Prop. 124, has earlier said the pamphlet problems are “certainly not ideal for us,” but the election should not be postponed. On Thursday, after learning of Brnovich's decision, he said he is "thrilled and are very thankful to see the voices of Arizona voters will be heard at this special election."

J.P. Twist, campaign manager for Prop. 123, said in a statement the intent of the special election was to try to get money into schools as soon as possible.

"Any delay just results in our kids and teachers being underfunded longer," Twist's statement said. "With well over 700,000 ballots already cast, moving the election would only disenfranchise more Arizonans."

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