AG to MCAO: You sold a dead parrot.
MCAO: The Norwegian Blue? Nah, nah, it's not dead, it's resting...
Maricopa County Attorney Thomas Liddy, the Division Chief Civil Services Division, has responded to Assistant AG Jennifer Wright’s November 19, 2022 letter, and it’s only slightly flippant. Telling her the county has a “Report” and they’ll update it later, if needed, but that her “remaining questions will have to wait.…” Liddy tells Wright:
“Free, fair and uniform” elections does not require perfection.
“These laws, however, do not require that every printer and tabulator work perfectly such that there can never be any unplanned and unanticipated equipment malfunctions or failures.”
Slightly longer summation:
(1) The laws the AG cites either do not apply or were not broken.
(2) Technical issues happened in some vote centers but all voters still provided a meaningful opportunity to vote.
(3) Voters that checked out of a first location, and who spoiled their ballot in the presence of a poll worker, were free to go to another location where the ePollbook will show they have not voted. “The County allows voters to do so,” he writes.
(4) The statute cited by Wright - requiring a complete reconciliation of ballots cast against check ins at the voting location, not the central location - was written when the the state used precinct-based polling. That changed in 2020 when the county “afforded the ability to vote any voting center in the county, which is consistent with current Arizona law.” The reconciliation happens at the downtown tabulation center, not at each voting center.
Buckle up, the county intends to move forward. They are not slowing down. Reading the two letters is like watching a sketch of performative art:
We all see the dead parrot.
The AG sees the dead parrot.
But the county insists - it’s just resting.
Again, I believe the AG should now join Abe’s contest action - and Kari’s when she brings one. They have the power and appear to have the evidence to make a case of maladministration. The question is whether they have the will.
End.