State Representatives Teresa Martinez (R-Casa Grande) and Rachel Jones (R-Tucson) sent a letter to Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes last week requesting an investigation into three election problems in Pima County’s 2024 general election. They included two letters Jones and other legislators sent to Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cazares-Kelly previously inquiring about “disturbing allegations” that her office encouraged convicted felons to vote, and how the office handled undeliverable ballots. Cazares-Kelly never responded to either letter.
The Arizona Sun Times reached out to Martinez and Jones for comment. Both said they had not heard back yet from Mayes’ office, but would give her another week before pressing the matter. They will be putting in their own public records requests to Cazares-Kelly next week. Cazares-Kelly’s personal X account bio states that she is “dismantling white supremacy” and goes by the pronouns “She/Her.”
First, the legislators asked Mayes to look into Cazaras-Kelly shutting down the online portal for requesting an early ballot six days before the deadline to submit ballots. “Reports indicate that nearly 4,000 votes were impacted,” they said.
Second, the legislators said, “[I]t appears to us that Recorder Cazares-Kelly has essentially facilitated illegal voting by convicted felons through a reckless voter-registration inmate program.” They cited the letter that Jones, Rep. Cory McGarr (R-Tucson), and Sen. Justine Wadsack (R-Tucson) sent her on June 5. It said, “We are extremely troubled by your office’s apparent facilitation of illegal voting through its reckless voter-registration inmate program — which the Legislature has neither authorized nor endorsed.”
The legislators referenced a recent decision by the Arizona Court of Appeals, State of Arizona v. Clark, where “a Pima County Chief Deputy Recorder testified at trial that your office does not conduct any due diligence whatsoever to confirm that the inmates the office recruits to register to vote have not been convicted of a felony or that they are otherwise eligible to vote under Arizona law.” The witness also “testified that ‘even in 2023,’ the Recorder’s Office ‘ultimately take[s] the voter at their word’ that the voter is not a convicted felon.”
They demanded that Cazares-Kelly shut down the inmate voter registration program immediately. The legislators asked how many inmates were registered to vote through the program and whether the office had confirmed that the inmates were eligible to vote.
Jones and McGarr sent Cazares-Kelly a second letter on October 24, which was the third issue they brought up in their letter to Mayes. They said constituents had “concerns and confusion” over the “office’s handling of ballots that have been returned as undeliverable or returned due to an outdated address.” Voters reported that when their ballots were returned as undeliverable, they received a notification that stated, “We received your mailed ballot” and “We are in the process of verifying your signature.”
The legislators said a related concern was receiving conflicting information from the recorder’s office regarding “how your office stores or processes ballots returned as undeliverable.” They asked how many ballots were returned as undeliverable in the 2024 general election, how the office processes and stores them, what policies have been put in place to comply with the law regarding handling undeliverable ballots, and what the recorder intends to do to deal with the incorrect notices being sent out.
Martinez’s and Jones’ letter to Mayes concluded, “[W]e hope you will agree that Recorder Cazares-Kelly’s alarming conduct administering the 2024 General Election warrants a thorough investigation. Please confirm that you will open an investigation into these matters.”
The Sun Times asked MSG F. Jack Dona, US Army (Retired) of The Conelrad Group his assessment, since his southern Arizona election integrity group has been investigating election problems along with its partner, the Pima Integrity Project. “President John F. Kennedy once said, ‘If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich,'” he said. “And this statement is never more true today than it was back in 1963. The very basis of our system of our government relies on the Consent of the Governed. That ‘Consent’ is given via our election system. Small or great, rich or poor, the one thing that unites all of us as citizens is our Right to one vote, for one citizen, in free and fair elections. Today, we have anything but that.”
Dona went on, “The Conelrad Group and the Pima Integrity project identified multiple issues of possible fraud and criminality in the 2022 elections for Pinal County and Pima County. We see today serious circumstantial evidence that in Pima County, the 2024 Election was anything but transparent regarding the unanswered questions raised in these letters by our elected officials. If those we elect to represent us pose legitimate questions regarding the election system in Pima County, and those questions are ignored by those who are in fact answerable to We The People, then we do not have a functioning free election system. Corruption allowed to go unchecked will eventually destroy all aspects of society, and none will escape the consequences, rich or poor. It is apparent to me that direct intervention is needed by the incoming Trump Administration DOJ, to address the issues that continue to plague the State of Arizona regarding our election system. Special Counsels or investigators must be appointed by the incoming DOJ Attorney General to put to rest once and for all the continuing problems plaguing this state and others across the Republic.”
The two election integrity groups issued a report earlier this year about “malfeasance,” “maladministration,” and “possible RICO violations” in recent Pima County elections.
KFYI talk show host Garret Lewis interviewed McGarr about his loss in the election last month. Republicans have more than a 10-point voter registration edge over Democrats in his district, LD 17. That difference has increased since 2022, McGarr said, yet his Democratic opponent received 20 percent more votes than his opponent in 2022. He told Lewis that the race shouldn’t have even been competitive. He said in Maricopa County, in districts with the same breakdown of Republicans versus Democrats, where observers were allowed, the Republican candidates won by 5-6 points.
McGarr looked into the numbers and figured out that independents would have had to break 91 percent for his opponent. “That’s unheard of,” he said. “That’s impossible.”
Lewis said Cazaras-Kelly refused to allow election observers at early voting centers. McGarr responded, “When they say ‘don’t observe me,’ normally they need to be observed the most.”
Lewis accused the county, “They purposefully withheld sending out 267,000 ballots to voters in Pima County based on, well, there are about 505 addresses in the wrong school districts.”
McGarr said he and Jones heard from voters who discovered that immediately after they moved out of state, someone requested a ballot in their name. “When you have an instance where as soon as someone moves out, a ballot is requested on the exact same day they changed their address — that seems like a pretty organized machine there,” he said.
McGarr believes the wrongdoing affected Kari Lake’s Senate race too. He called for the Arizona Legislature to investigate Pima County and audit the election.
Pima County Supervisor Steve Christy called for an investigation into shutting down the early ballot portal before the election, but was outvoted by his colleagues on the board. Christy is the only Republican on the board.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “State Representatives Teresa Martinez” by State Representative Teresa Martinez and “State Representative Rachel Jones” by Rachel Jones.
