Roberts: At least 400,000 early voters didn't get election info on time

From the here-we-go-again department: another Arizona election snafu.

This time, involving vital information about what’s on the May 17 ballot.

At least 400,000 early voters didn’t get a publicity pamphlet on time, as required by law, and some got it just last weekend – fully two weeks after early ballots hit the mailbox.

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Attorney Tom Ryan plans to file a complaint today with Attorney General Mark Brnovich, asking the election be postponed.

“You have a right to know what you’re voting on. It’s a mandate,” Ryan told me.

State Treasurer Jeff DeWit, who is leading the opposition to Proposition 123,  also called for a postponement, saying the lack of voter information was a "huge concern" and a boost for the pro-Prop. 123 campaign.

“The publicity pamphlets had a lot of solid information for those that wanted to know the opposing viewpoints," he said. "A lot of individuals spent their hard-earned money to have those concerns included in the pamphlet and state law requires that voters are provided this information  before they receive their ballot. I don’t know if this was purposeful but it certainly helps the proponents of Prop. 123. Seeing the massive scale of the numbers of voters who are going to be disenfranchised by not receiving the information about what they're voting on should be grounds for postponing this election until the next opportunity, which is August."

The spokesman for the pro-Prop. 123 campaign has not yet responded to a request for comment.

The law says voters “shall” get their publicity pamphlet – containing Propositions 123 and 124, an analysis of what they do and statements for and against them – before the first wave of early ballots arrive.

Early ballots hit Arizona mailboxes beginning on April 21.

Two weeks after info 'shall' be received

Matt Roberts, spokesman for Secretary of State Michele Reagan, confirmed this morning that 200,000 households in rural Arizona didn’t get a publicity pamphlet on time. The households skipped were those outside Maricopa and Pima Counties that had more than one early voter -- meaning at least 400,000 voters didn't receive the required information on time.

Roberts attributed the problem to a computer error.

He said those who didn’t get the booklet on time “should have the publicity pamphlet beginning last weekend.”

Two weeks after state law said they “shall” be received.

Just the latest 'inadvertent error'

“They have them now and it was available online,” Roberts told me. “It was an inadvertent error with our system that our vendor didn’t alert us to.”

One of so many inadvertent errors in recent times. (See: Spanish language ballots, see presidential primary fiasco.)

Roberts said the Secretary of State’s Office considers the matter closed, noting that the publicity pamphlet was posted online before the deadline.

So, at least 400,000 would have either had to go online to search out information about the election or, in the case of Prop. 123, relied on a $4 million pro-123 advertising campaign filled with smiling children.

Sure, that's fair.

Postpone the election?

Ryan wants the election moved to either the Aug. 30 primary or the Nov. 8 general election.

"Our secretary of state did not do her job," he said. "This is her second large election and she has once again muffed it up. It's not even close."

Kory Langhofer, an elections law attorney, says no judge would postpone the election.

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"It's obviously not kosher," he said. "I would be astonished if a judge gave them any relief at all."

Langhofer said the best that Ryan could likely hope for would be to extend the May 17 deadline by the number of days early voters didn't have the publicity pamphlet -- giving them extra time to vote.

That, however, doesn't remedy the problem of voters who cast their ballots without having first had access to official state information the law requires that they be given.

Arizona requires 'strict compliance'

Those who want this election to proceed on May 17 should consider the will of our leaders.

Several years ago, the Legislature tightened up the law on recalls and referendums after Republicans were unsuccessful in stopping the Russell Pearce recall due to various small errors.

As a result, Arizona now requires “strict compliance” with the laws that lay out how recalls and referendums must proceed.

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Ryan says that leaves this election in violation of the law. Langhofer, meanwhile, says the strict compliance rule applies only to those seeking to put something on the ballot, not to the administration of the resulting election.

It'll be up to Brnovich or maybe a judge to decide whether the May 17 election can proceed.

Meanwhile, consider where we are in elections of late.  This – leaving voters to cast a ballot on two major referendums without the information required by law – no doubt is inadvertent.

But it’s no small error.

One wonders if it would have happened had Secretary of State Michele Reagan spent more time overseeing this election and less time lobbying the Legislature to open the floodgates to more "dark money" and other campaign-finance "reforms."