In seven municipalities across Pinal County, voters received about 65,000 early ballots with errors related to city and town elections, and officials recently held a live meeting to discuss what voters should expect from new municipal-only ballots.
“Effective now, impacted voters can go to their local voting site and they can pick up the municipal-only ballot, or if you are on the active early voter list, this will automatically be sent to your residence,” said Pinal County Attorney General Kent Volkmer in the meeting recorded by Fox News. “I cannot stress this enough. If you live in any of the seven impacted municipalities, you must fill out both of these ballots.”
In the press conference, as well as a separate video discussing the matter, Volkmer showed the new ballot, which will have a sizeable orange strip across the top to distinguish it from the first ballot. Volkmer stated that the ballots finished printing on Friday, were sent in the mail on Saturday, and hand-delivered to voting sites on Monday.
Previously, Pinal County held a Special Board of Supervisors meeting, where they decided that the best course of action to address the error was to send out the additional ballots. According to officials, the affected cities include Apache Junction, Casa Grande, Eloy, Mammoth, Maricopa, Queen Creek, and Superior.
“Pinal County leadership would again like to take this opportunity to express regret over the situation that has been caused by these errors, and wishes to reassure voters that we will work diligently to ensure the Election runs as smoothly as possible from this point onwards with full integrity and transparency,” according to a Pinal County news release.
The County states that early voters should still use the ballot they received to vote in Federal, State, Legislative, and County elections and can return the ballot as instructed. Any votes cased in for the city-level elections in the faulty ballots will not be counted. An in-person option will be available at polling sites on Election Day for municipal-only voting in the impacted towns.
Moreover, Pinal County expressed that there was no malicious intent behind the mistake, and it simply came down to a “human error.”
“As a county, we strive for excellence, trust and transparency, particularly when it comes to elections, and we recognize the significance of these errors. We wish to reassure voters and candidates that election integrity is our top priority, and as such, we are taking immediate corrective action for voters in the affected areas,” according to Pinal County Vote.
The county further stated that anyone who lives in unlisted cities is not affected by the error, and voters can use a tool to check if they are affected.
County Officials have identified errors with early voting ballots in seven municipalities. Issues relate to missing or inaccurate city/town contests in some jurisdictions and unincorporated areas. Supplementary Ballots are to be Issued to Impacted Voters: https://t.co/whjeo2mM1b pic.twitter.com/cnZUtwTsAO
— Pinal County – Government (@PinalCounty) July 9, 2022
As reported by Azcentral, Republican Arizona 6th Congressional District U.S. House candidate Kathleen Winn initially filed a lawsuit against Pinal County over the estimated 63,000 faulty ballots that were sent out. However, Winn allegedly filed this suit before the county released its finalized plan. Winn afterward withdrew her lawsuit, saying the county is doing its best under the current circumstances.
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Neil Jones is a reporter for The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Neil on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kent Volkmer” by Pinal County.
