In what remains one of the tightest congressional races in the country, Republican candidate Martha McSally’s legal team is taking steps to toss out the ballots of voters in Pima County.
McSally now leads Democratic Congressman Ron Barber in the Congressional District 2 race by 509 votes, with an estimated 9,000 provisional ballots still left to count. It’s unclear how many of those votes are in Congressional District 2.
Attorney Eric H. Spencer, representing McSally and the Republican Party, emailed County Recorder F. Ann Rodriguez this morning to demand that any provisional ballot form that was missing a signature from both a poll worker and a voter be set aside.
Rodriguez and Chris Roads, Pima County registrar of voters, said they would continue processing the provisional ballots.
“Martha McSally will do anything to stop Southern Arizonans from making their voice heard at the ballot box,” said Team Barber spokeswoman Ashley Nash-Hahn. “We’ve seen her tricks before, when she tried to throw out votes in Cochise County, and we aren’t surprised to see her desperate moves to silence the voters of Southern Arizona.”
McSally spokesman Patrick Ptak was not available for comment.
Team McSally took legal action to toss ballots from Latino precincts in her narrow 2012 loss.
In 2012, Barber won the provisional ballot count, capturing roughly 55 percent to McSally’s 45 percent.
Here’s Spencer’s first email:
Ms. Rodriguez and Mr. Nelson,
The Republican Party/McSally for Congress campaign (collectively “the campaign”) formally challenges the validity of all provisional ballots that have a provisional ballot form with a missing election official signature.
Page 152 of the Secretary of State’s Election Procedures Manual states that, prior to voting a provisional ballot: “An election official or voter completes a provisional ballot form. The voter and the election official sign the provisional ballot form.”
After voting the ballot, “[t]he voter will return the sealed envelope to the election official, who will verify the envelope is properly filled out, signed and sealed.” Id.
Accordingly, the campaign respectfully requests the following immediate relief:
· The recorder’s office instruct staff to not verify any provisional ballots with a missing election official signature on the provisional ballot form;
· The recorder’s office cease transmitting any previously-verified provisional ballots to the elections department, pending a review of the provisional ballot forms for missing election official signatures;
· The elections department cease processing any provisional ballots or transmitting any provisional ballots for counting, pending a review of the provisional ballot forms for missing election official signatures; and
· The recorder’s office and elections department collect and embargo any provisional ballots that contain a provisional ballot form with missing election official signatures, pending a final legal review and determination in conjunction with the County Attorney’s office.
Given the exigency of this matter, please confirm by 10:15 a.m. that the recorder’s office and elections department will immediately implement these prophylactic procedures.
Here is the response from Roads.
Mr. Spencer,
In response to your challenge, the Pima County Recorder’s Office will not stop processing the provisional ballots. Whether or not the poll worker signed the provisional is clearly identifiable from a simple examination of the provisional ballot form whether or not the provisional is processed by the Recorder’s Office. Therefore our processing has no bearing as to your challenge. In other words, the fact that we processed the provisional form will not impact your ability to proceed with your challenge. The Recorder’s Office is under a statutory deadline to complete processing the provisional ballots and we will continue to proceed toward meeting that deadline.
Please note that your extremely short deadlines for responses are unreasonable. Under Arizona law we have a reasonable time to respond to public records requests and other matters. A deadline of less than 30 minutes is far less than reasonable.
Both candidates have attorneys on site in our office observing our processes and tracking the work we are doing.
This article appears in Nov 6-12, 2014.
If McSally wins she will make one of her local supporters happy the racist Warden the infamous Mexican flag burner of Tucson, he is giddy at the possibility of her winning!:-) Birds of a feather do tend to flock together!
Republicans will stop at nothing to gut Pima County and Tucson.
Seems McSally lacks good sportsmanship.
Gee whiz! Another Republican trying to suppress the vote. How is that news? The Republican Party has disenfranchised millions of Americans throughout the country with their various schemes to keep people that they don’t like from voting. Those 40,000 missing registrations in Georgia come to mind but that’s just a drop in the bucket compared to the numbers of people who have been kicked off the voting rolls in states like Florida especially.
Don’t blame McSally though … The Koch brothers aren’t paying her to lose. Her only option is to win by hook or by crook.
Both this headline and the link to the 2012 Legal Action are VERY misleading. In neither case was “Team McSally” attempting to “toss” ballots. Merely have them set aside.
It appears to me, upon a detailed reading, that what is being attempted is to keep “suspicious” provisional ballots from being conmingled with verified valid ballots until suspicions can be allayed or a legal determination can be made.
If ballots which later turn out NOT to be valid get conmingled with the truly valid ones, then any legal determination that the ballots are invalid becomes moot.
It seems reasonable to me to keep questionable ones segregated “pending a final legal review and determination in conjunction with the County Attorney’s office.”
What’s WRONG with you “left wing” people, “Up There?”
If the rules REQUIRE the two signatures, WHY do you disparage McSally for demanding the rules be followed?
If Barber were trailing in the count, and demanded the same, would you think HE was “lack(ing) good sportsmanship?
No you wouldn’t. You don’t want HONEST elections. You just want to win!
This is WHY you are hypocrites, intellectually dishonest, and WHY you lost the midterms on a national basis, no matter WHAT the eventual outcome turns out to be in THIS race!
Actually, seems like a reasonable request, in view of the rule in the manuel.
P.S. – Am I the *ONLY* one who finds it odd that the County Recorder continues to find and certify mailed in ballots?
Mailed ballots had to be received by 7PM on Tuesday. I can certainly understand many of those not being processed until Wednesday and Thursday…but Friday seems a bit late to be getting around to it and Saturday and Sunday they’re still “finding” valid mailed in ballots? I’d love to here an explanation as to where the mailed in ballots certified today have been sitting for the past five days.
Really don’t want to sound like too much of a conspiracy theorist whackjob, but it certainly does seem to lend a little credence to the claim I’ve been hearing lately that “Pima County will keep finding ballots until Barber wins”
YES, Moderate McSally Supporter:
Don’t forget local activist John Brakey and the suit, filed by Attorney Bill Risner, challenging the Pima County Vote Counting Scheme which Brakey says is subject to hacking.
Will THIS election be the “poster child” that gives validity to Brakey’s charge of tabulation fixing?
McSally tried to pose as a moderate conservative …yet why does it seem that many of her supporters want to keep American citizens from voting. The fact that Roy Warden a man who has publicly burned the flag of a friendly neighboring country is one of her supporters should disturb even Republicans as Mexican trade is important to the local economy and come to think of it many local Republicans deserted her for Barber…
In some places, candidate friendly judges would stop the voting. So either the McSally contingent has no judges in their pocket or they didn’t bother and are bluffing because they knew they would lose a court fight.
Wondering why only Pima is in question when McSally did not question any other county. If it is such a reasonable request, I suggest we add Cochise County to the list of challenges.
Cranky Cowboy, manual is spelled with an “a” — not an “e.” Manuel is a Latino name — one of the precincts Martha McSally tried to throw out the 2012 election when she lost.
Burning the Mexican Flag helped to GUT the local “Pro-Raza” Movement.
Want to know WHY I burned the Mexican Flag, notwithstanding the fact that even the SPLC conceded it was an effective tactic?
Read this: http://arizonacommonsense.com/wp-content/u…
You Just MIGHT learn something!
@kitwarden— when I was a kid, I would be cleaning up my room and then one of my parents would come in (mid clean) and, without acknowledging that I was in a current state of cleaning, demand that I clean my room. All that this did was make me think that he or she was an asshole. So to contact the people counting the votes, as they are already verifying signatures and whatnot, and demand that they stop what they are doing so that they can resume exactly what they are doing, but only because you made them is completely absurd. There aren’t many things more aggravating than a person that tells you about your business. That said, ron barber’s office is pretty much a bunch of monkey sitting around smoking cigars so it doesn’t matter which person wins. We all lose either way.
DEMOCRATS dont follow the Rules unless its IN Their FAVOR.. dont we all KNOW that? Pima County is already a “suspicious” Demo-stronghold – the WHOLE state knows that.. Barber only Confirms It. Demos are nothing But Cheaters. Aint that right – Bill “I did Not have Sex With That Woman” Clinton?
I wish the barbers spokesperson was unavailable for comment. She seems like a bitter nasty person. Too much complaining. We saw your ads.
Shame on you.
I guess the Koch brothers gave McSally more money to play with. If our County Recorder tosses out any votes, we would have them removed from office. We all have the right to have our voices heard and Martha McSally really needs to get a grip and just wait until everything is finalized.
It would seem that in an election as close as this one, the Secretary of State Manual should be followed as close as possible to avoid any legal challenge to the Pima County Elections Department. Pima County should not utilize any “creative” process in counting “questionable” ballots. The election process should be fully transparent and clearly satisfy all Secretary of State guidelines unconditionally. Pima County Elections will have a “credibility crisis” if they proceed in an unconventional manner.
What news organization is going to force her out of the closet?
As a territorial family member @kit warden your a pig. My family has been in what is now Arizona and by burning the Mexican flag, a flag that has historical significance as one of the seven flags that flew over this territory. How would you like it if I burned a confederate flag or a Gadsden Flag or even a US flag? Probably won’t like that huh?
We have been in what is now known as Arizona for nearly 250 years.
Seems to me that accusations fly from both sides and the major point is missed, that we live in a divided area. Lack of recognition of this crucial point is lost in trying to get a vote. Don’t you see that both sides are missing an opportunity to reach out to the community of Tucson and bridge this gap. Is marriage rights or the border the most important things to long time Tucsonians? The answer is no. We need jobs, economic stability and growth. Poverty is the perverter of race.
Its clear this year that Democrats have been rejected across the country ! I find it strange that the last votes are coming in from Pima county…..I smell fraud if Barber wins.
Furthermore, Pima County and Tucson City Council needs an overhaul in the way of stricter and shorter Term limits of those in office to insure that our community is represented correctly and our leaders are “of the people” not “pilfering the people”
To those of you defending McSally: read the article more carefully.
It’s not about the ballots that don’t have signatures. those won’t be counted. McSally is requesting that a hold is placed on counting ALL the provisional ballots until a review of all the ballots takes place.
There are 9000 provisional ballots to count. 1 or 2 of them may be missing signatures. McSally is requesting that the other 8998 of them not be counted because of the 1 or 2 that lack signatures.
Shame on you McSally
That is not the issue at all. Provisional ballots that were not signed by a poll worker should and must be considered fraudulent. Why would we allow ballots with no checks and balances?
Mr Barber does not know when he is no longer needed. We’ve got this Ron. Go home just like you promised.
Rat T., the judge disagreed with your legal interpretation. I’m not sure where you got your law degree (perhaps the Alexander Hamilton Evening Law School?), but it’s not doing you much good in this particular debate.
The judge never asked for my opinion. That’s where he went wrong.
And you’re mistaken. I got it out of a Cracker Jack Box.
It was a win/win situation.
democrats will do anything to win, even ignore the law
Okay, just a question then without all the political jabbing. Why is McSally wanting to put a hold on the provisional ballots ONLY in Pima County? Why not put a hold on All provisional ballots in All of the counties until they can All be examined for validity?
Lets be honest here, it looks like she is worried she will lose again. I don’t care about either party or for any of the back and forth crap, but if we are going to take some action, take it across the board and go through all the ballots. Throw out the few that do not meet requirements under the law and let the votes decide the winner.