What a Huge Disappointment They Are
The leadership of the City of Tucson and Pima County are a huge disappointment. The City of Tucson denied a former President of the United States the opportunity to hold a rally at the Tucson Convention Center. The story was that the Trump team “stiffed” the city the last time they held a rally. So basically, the City of Tucson did not know how to negotiate a contract, execute the contract, and collect on the fees due. According to the contract, Item 7.c.5, it was the city’s responsibility to bring action against the licensee for noncompliance with the contract; they didn’t. BTW, Bernie Sanders owes the City of Tucson money, too, so it just proves my point that they are incompetent in the execution of normal business practices regardless of political party. Bottom line, the City Attorney slow-walked the contract and Tucson and Pima County lost out on a revenue-sharing opportunity the likes of which we do not normally see during the summer months. Not their loss, it’s the citizens of the City of Tucson and Pima County’s loss.
It Doesn’t Stop There
Our mock elections which were held by the Department of Elections had problems. The Department is understaffed, the staff has not received the training necessary to accomplish their jobs, the equipment and supplies were not ready to go when early voting started, and it took the Pima County Republican Party to take legal action to “motivate” our Pima County Supervisors to recognize that requiring a vaccine mandate was going to make it difficult for the Elections Director to staff, direct, and manage the elections. Another win for us.
Our Recorder’s Office has told us that the Early Voting Sites are too small to allow partisan observers to observe the process, then they said their staff wasn’t prepared to have other people there and they weren’t trained to answer their questions, then they said they didn’t have written policies and procedures for observers. Whatever the issue, the Republican National Committee (RNC) Legal team has stepped in at the Pima County Republican Party’s request and issued a letter to the County Recorder, Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, to “request your office reconsider that decision in the interest of government transparency and maintaining full faith and confidence in Arizona’s electoral system.” The letter was delivered on July 14, and we await her response.
So, What Do We Do About It
There is good news. The Elections Department has shared with me that they need 1,368 Poll Workers on election day and 608 Republicans have signed up to work. Excellent job Pima County Republicans! There is another category of intermittent staff during the election season identified as the Election Aides. Those positions are filled as well. Thanks to the hard work of the Elections Integrity Task Force/Elections Integrity Program and their efforts, the Pima County Republicans have lined up for the task and will be doing the work in the Elections Department and observing at the Voting Centers.
The Pima County Republican Party is on top of the elections. With the assistance of the Save America PAC, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the Arizona Republican Party we have (1) stopped the vaccine requirement, (2) staffed over 700 observers, (3) recruited and trained over 500 poll workers, (4) provided legal training for poll observers through the RNC Legal team, (5) held the County Recorder accountable for not permitting observers in the Early Ballot Centers, (6) implemented a software system for the scheduling of poll observers in collaboration with the AZGOP, (7) conducted the Logic and Accuracy testing of the equipment, and (8) sent Republicans to participate in and report on the mock elections.
Moving Forward
The Board of Supervisors (BOS) appointed Jan Lesher as the County Administrator (April 2022) following the most interesting acceptance of Chuck Huckelberry’s retirement by the BOS. Constance Hargrove was selected from five candidates as our Director of Elections (April 2022) and Gabriella Cázares-Kelly was elected County Recorder in 2020 (January 2020). We don’t have a bench strength of experience in Pima County when it comes to elections. This clearly is one of those times when the saying “elections have consequences” really has meaning. Leading into 2024, we will address the Board of Supervisor’s seats, several of the City Council elections, and the County Recorder. We will make the operations of Pima County competent again.
Join me. Be our eyes and ears in Pima County. Contact us at 520-321-1492 if you have issues at the Voting Centers or experience lines more than 30 minutes.