A memorandum of understanding that was reached between the Arizona Legislature and Runbeck, one of Maricopa County’s main election servicers, was repealed following a decision by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
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The Republican Party of Arizona has secured an agreement with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to test ballot tabulators used in elections, rather than only testing backup equipment.
The agreement states that the board “will inform the Secretary of State that it wants the test to be of at least six of the tabulators and twelve of the accessible voting devices scheduled to be deployed to early voting locations and vote centers.”
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The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted to allocate $130,000 in taxpayer dollars through the county’s “community solutions” fund for a variety of purposes in the East Valley on Wednesday.
One hundred thousand dollars will head toward the International Dark Sky Discovery Center for childhood education uses and admission costs, $10,000 will be used for “sign improvements” along the Hawes Trail System near Mesa within the Tonto National Forest, and $8,000 to assist the East Valley Institute of Technology’s program for small children, the board touted in a news release on Wednesday. Other funds went toward “heat relief” uses.
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Several election lawsuits filed recently with significant impact on the 2024 presidential election have been decided in favor of election integrity proponents, ensuring laws remain enforced ahead of the November election.
The lawsuits filed focused on candidate eligibility, different changes in law, and alleged violations of election laws. Most of them have resulted in wins for election integrity, while two are ongoing.
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In Maricopa County, the race for supervisor in District 4 is heating up between two Republican contenders: Dr. Robert Branch and U.S. Representative Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08). There is a Democratic candidate, but given the district’s strong Republican history, political watchers say they expect that Republicans will prevail to join the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (BOS). The pair recently clashed at a lively forum hosted by the Sun City West Republican Club on Saturday.
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Representative Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08), who recently announced she will retire from the U.S. Congress at the end of her term, is now reportedly seeking election to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
Multiple reports reveal Lesko announced her candidacy for the District 4 seat on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors within hours of the Thursday announcement when Supervisor Clint Hickman confirmed he will not seek another term in office.
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America First Legal (AFL) on Wednesday announced a new “landmark lawsuit” in Arizona against Maricopa County, its board of supervisors, and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer alleging the county has violated various state election laws since 2020.
AFL’s James Rogers said in a statement that “Maricopa County’s errors, lapses, and mistakes in administering elections have seriously eroded” the “trust that elections are free and fair,” which he noted underpins the “legitimacy of our government.”
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The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors elected Supervisor Jack Sellers to be its next chairman.
As Maricopa County is considered the nation’s “second largest voting jurisdiction” and is extremely competitive, Sellers said he’s focused on election operations this year.
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On Wednesday the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors selected former Arizona House of Representative member Republican Shawnna Bolick to fill a seat in the State Senate for Legislative District 2 which represents areas of north Phoenix.
This follows former Republican Senator Steve Kaiser resigning last month to run a nonprofit policy group that he founded to support the Republican majority at the Arizona Legislature.
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Arizona Republican businessman Steven Hines announced his candidacy for Maricopa County Recorder in 2024.
Hines says his “General objective is to help heal the divide” in Maricopa County “By rebuilding trust in the recorder’s office by way of accountability, professionalism, and transparency.”
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The City of Glendale reached an agreement with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on June 28 for the board to provide over $7.1 million toward four affordable housing communities.
The project, funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act, is expected to provide 790 new multi-family rental units to the valley, serving approximately 1,465 people per year beginning in Jan. 2024. In addition to the ARPA allocation, Glendale will provide more than $2.98 million in funding, and will waive more than $1.2 million in development fees.
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After serving on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors since 2016, Bill Gates announced on June 1 he would not run for reelection in 2024.
Gates released a statement on Twitter saying he planned to “pursue other interests and opportunities.” His announcement comes after the Board of Supervisors faced many false allegations of election fraud following the 2020 and 2022 elections.
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Rob Canterbury, sergeant-at-arms for the Arizona Republican Party, announced he will run for Maricopa County Supervisor (MCBOS) in 2024. Canterbury is challenging Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman in District 4, and at the same time, also taking on Bill Gates — the Microsoft founder, not the supervisor. Gates is constructing a “smart city” in Maricopa County, and Canterbury wants to ensure his project does not get subsidies from the county and make demands “with strings attached.”
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The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors selected Julie Willoughby, an emergency room trauma nurse, to fill the vacant LD 13 House seat formerly occupied by ousted State Representative Liz Harris (R-Chandler). The vote was 4-1, with the lone Democrat Steve Gallardo dissenting. The law required Republican precinct committeemen in the district to choose three candidates to send to the supervisors. The other two candidates they selected were Harris, who received the most support from the PCs, and Steven Steele, a retired natural-gas worker and motorcycle-operator trainer.
Arizona Corporation Commissioner Jim O’Connor, who led an effort opposing voting machine tabulators last election, praised the choice. “I believe Julie to be a solid conservative voice for her district,” he told The Arizona Sun Times.
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Arizona State Senator J.D. Mesnard (R-Chandler) took a moment on the Senate Floor Wednesday to call on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBOS) to perform its duties and fill vacancies in the Arizona State Legislature.
“The length of these vacancies is the longest, while we’ve been in session, in a half-century, 56 years,” Mesnard said. “I went back and looked; what’s the average time it takes from the point of vacancy to the point of fulfilling the vacancy? 8.76 days is the average.”
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Following the expulsion of Republican State Rep. Liz Harris (R-Chandler) from the state House, it’s now up to a mix of local and county officials to decide who will ultimately be her replacement.
Republican precinct committeemen in Legislature District 13 will choose three names to give to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, who will have the final say in picking one of the three to fill Harris’s now vacant seat.
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While Maricopa County released a report on the election failures of the 2022 elections, Arizona election lawsuits continue as 2022 GOP nominees Kari Lake and Mark Finchem file motions for reconsideration in their respective races for governor and secretary of state.
On Monday, Maricopa County released a report by former Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor on the causes of the ballot printer issues that occurred at more than 70 vote centers on Election Day last year, which resulted in long lines as many voters’ ballots were unreadable by tabulator machines.
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Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer shared Monday that voters should be ready for Democrats to initially lead on the night of November 8th as early votes are counted first.
“The results released at 8:00 PM on Election Night will be comprised of early ballots we receive by the weekend before Election Day,” tweeted Richer. “First moral of the story: In Arizona, Initial results will likely be much bluer than eventual final results. Second moral: if you want your ballot to be part of results released AT 8:00 PM on Election Night, return it before the weekend before Election Day.”
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The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors will spend an additional $35 million to develop affordable housing units in the region and down payment assistance programs for prospective homeowners.
These new programs increase Maricopa County’s total affordable housing investment initiatives to $65 million.
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Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has responded to the rising cost of goods and services with a property tax rate cut.
The board approved a tentative FY 2023 budget aiming to mitigate the impact of inflation in the county by using hundreds of millions of dollars in American Rescue Plan funds for financial assistance and resources to residents and businesses.
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When asked what big takeaway there was in the Maricopa County election audit, Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake told The Georgia Star News, “There were so many. It’s like death by a thousand paper cuts. I call it death by a thousand knife wounds because these are so much bigger than paper cuts.”
“We had 34,000 votes that were counted two, three or four times, 740,000 ballots with no chain-of-custody. They shouldn’t have even been counted, and it goes on and on. The wrong paper stock was used,” she added.
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The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors appointed county prosecutor Rachel Mitchell as its County Attorney on Wednesday in a unanimous vote.
Mitchell has served in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office for 30 years. Most recently, she served as the head of the Criminal Division.
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The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors approved $17 million in spending to create more affordable housing units.
The money–given to the state by the federal government through the federal government’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)–will go toward two separate projects. Of it, $8 million will create 50 new housing units by converting a hotel in central Phoenix. Meanwhile, the other $9 million will support the construction of affordable rental units.
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Arizona’s Senate President took to a popular podcast last week to reveal that audit results from the 2020 election show major problems with how absentee ballots were handled.
“What they’re not telling you is all the ballots that were returned to the post office – undeliverable – and you know what, they said ‘we don’t want them back, you can keep them. You can just destroy them. We don’t need them,'” Senate President Karen Fann (R-District 1) said on The Conservative Circus Podcast. “So those ballots never went back to the Election Department. They told the Post Office “oh, you can just destroy them, we don’t need them.'”
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In response to the report released last week about the Maricopa County ballot audit, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s Election Integrity Unit sent a letter to Maricopa County instructing the recorder and supervisors to preserve all records related to the 2020 election in preparation for litigation. He also sent a letter to the Arizona Senate requesting more information related to the audit.
“The Arizona Senate’s report that was released on Friday raises some serious questions regarding the 2020 election,” Brnovich said in a statement about the letters. “Arizonans can be assured our office will conduct a thorough review of the information we receive.”
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Arizona Republican and member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Steve Chucri announced on Tuesday that he will resign, following leaked records.
In the recordings released by the Gateway Pundit, Chucri criticized his colleagues for their lack of support for the forensic audit of the county’s 2.1 million ballots.
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Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced on Thursday that his office determined that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBOS) violated state law for failing to comply with the Arizona Senate’s legislative subpoena related to the 2020 election audit.
Because of the findings, MCBOS must comply or Brnovich will notify the Arizona Treasurer to withhold Maricopa County’s state-shared funds as required under the law.
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