(July 20, 2023) Already preparing for 2024: Pima County Elections Director Constance Hargrove wants to add more voting centers to make sure voters don’t have long wait times during next year’s elections. In Hargrove’s July 14 quarterly report, she recommended adding a voting center at the Highlands at Dove Mountain, where nearby voters have to drive more than 13 minutes to get to the nearest voting center, and at the University of Arizona’s Hillel Foundation. (Tucson Agenda)
(July 21, 2023) Election transparency: The Pima County Elections Department is taking steps to address complaints about election transparency, according to the Arizona Republic’s Sarah Lapidus. Elections Director Constance Hargrove said complaints about the county’s 24/7 livestream of the ballot tabulation room have been addressed, and the county is adding security measures to keep its poll workers safe and address misinformation.
"The (livestream cameras) are on all the time so people can see what's going on in that room,” Hargrove said. "We go in and we do programming, and we do maintenance and things like that so they can see everything that's going on.”
(July 24, 2023) Changing the rules: Pima County supervisors rescinded a policy last week requiring employees to take unpaid leave in order to run for paid public office seats, the Arizona Daily Star’s Nicole Ludden reports. The measure, which passed by a vote of 3-2, has caused concern among several elected officials, including Pima County Assessor Suzanne Droubie and Pima County Superintendent of Schools Dustin Williams, but has been praised by Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos. (Tucson Agenda)
(August 30) Checking the voter rolls: The state treasurer is sending nearly $1 million to the Pima County Recorder’s Office to review the accuracy of the voting rolls, County Administrator Jan Lesher wrote in an Aug. 28 memo to the Board of Supervisors. The money comes from a 2022 law that set aside $6 million for Arizona’s larger counties. (Tucson Agenda)
(November 14, 2023) End of an era: Pima County Supervisor Sharon Bronson is stepping down at the end of the month, after nearly 30 years on the board, the Green Valley News reports. Bronson, who represents District 3, wrote in a letter to the board that she’d been considering whether to run in recent months, but was injured last week when she tripped over one of her cats. Bronson fractured three ribs, saying that her recovery would take a few months and that she could not “adequately discharge” her duties. Supervisors will likely discuss the process to replace Bronson for the remainder of her term during their meeting next week.
(November 15, 2023) Lasting legacy: The Tucson Sentinel’s Blake Morlock writes that Pima County Supervisor Sharon Bronson’s upcoming retirement marks the end of an era for a leader who helped shape Pima County. Bronson has served constituents in western Pima County, Ajo, Why and Sells since 1996. Morlock takes readers through the history of her repeated victories over the years in what he says has been the most reliable swing district in the county.
(February 23) Integrity check: Pima County election officials talk with the Daily Wildcat’s Nandini Manepalli about the role artificial intelligence will play in local elections and their plans to combat misinformation. Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly said she’s had to tread carefully when deciding how and when to use AI, but one recent addition includes the Agilis Machine, which scans, sorts and identifies early voting or mail-in ballots that are missing a signature.
“We’re working hard to establish ourselves as the source of truth for our community by making information accessible, putting it in plain language so that everybody can understand and just trying to demystify the process,” Cázares-Kelly said.
(March 15) Candidate shakeup: Some new faces joined the races for county offices this month, ****county records show. Republican Dominic A. Campbell-Gonzalez filed a statement of interest to run against County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, a Democrat who was running unopposed. Constable Bennett Bernal also has his first challenger, Ivan Ricardo Tolano, in Justice Precinct 6. Both are Democrats. And incumbent Constable Daniel Rowland, a Republican, is now running for re-election in Justice Precinct 1 against Democrat Mark Roosevelt. Over in the race for superintendent of schools, Marana Unified School District Governing Board member Dr. Maribel Lopez withdrew from the race, leaving incumbent Dustin Williams as the sole candidate for the office.
(April 1) The supervisors are weighing their options as they pick the next County Treasurer. Tomorrow they’ll decide whether to schedule a forum so the public can hear from the people who want to replace outgoing Treasurer Beth Ford. Voters won’t decide who replaces Ford, but last year the League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson held a forum so the public could weigh in on who would be the best fit to replace Supervisor Sharon Bronson when she resigned (that ended up being Supervisor Sylvia Lee). (Tucson Agenda) At the March 19 meeting, Supervisor Steve Christy urged the board to appoint Ford’s handpicked successor, her deputy Chris Ackerley, who also is running for the seat this year. The board opted for a more deliberative process instead. The two candidates besides Ackerley are Patti E. Davidson and Ray Carroll, the county said in a news release Friday. Davidson is a chief deputy at the Treasurer’s Office and Carroll is a former county supervisor who now serves as a justice of the peace in Green Valley. The supervisors plan to appoint Ford’s replacement on April 16.
(April 18) Rocky road: Seven Tucson-area candidates are facing challenges to their nominating petitions, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel writes. The candidates include Democrat Matt Welch, who is challenging Sen. Priya Sundareshan in the Legislative District 18 primary election. And over in Congressional District 6, Libertarian Clifford Vance Cast is also facing a challenge to his petitions. In the smaller races, two justice of the peace and three constable candidates are also finding their petitions challenged.
(May 2) Thinning the pack: Several Pima County candidates are no longer on the ballot due to legal challenges to their nominating petitions, the Tucson Sentinel’s Jim Nintzel writes. As a result, the constable race in Justice Precinct 9 has no candidates, opening the door for write-in candidates in the July 30 Primary Election. In Legislative District 18, Democrat Matt Welch withdrew his challenge against incumbent state Sen. Priya Sundareshan, after she filed a lawsuit challenging his signatures. And in Congressional District 6, Libertarian candidates Clifford Vance Cast and Mark Siarto also withdrew their candidacies due to legal challenges.