PHOENIX — The Republican-controlled Arizona Senate voted Tuesday to require that the state’s top election official not participate in overseeing elections in which he or she is on the ballot.
That leaves the proposal one vote away from heading to Democratic governor and former secretary of state Katie Hobbs.
The legislation proposed by Rep. Rachel Jones, R-Tucson, has its roots in unfounded complaints by some losing Republican candidates in the 2022 election that Hobbs put her thumb on the scale for Democratic candidates while serving as secretary of state. Those who accused Hobbs of having a conflict of interest included Kari Lake, who lost her race for governor to Hobbs, and Mark Finchem, who lost his bid to replace Hobbs as Arizona’s top election official to Democrat Adrian Fontes.
All Democrats in the Senate voted Tuesday against the measure, House Bill 2308, as did all House Democrats when it passed out of that chamber in February, saying it was prompted by baseless conspiracy theories.
Republican supporters, however, said it was needed to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest by the secretary of state.
Secretaries of state have had the same election duties for decades, and the issue only arose after a Democrat held the office.
An amendment tacked on before debate on Monday by Sen. Ken Bennett, R-Prescott, slightly watered down the House-passed bill.
It now would allow secretaries of state to continue performing their constitutional duty to certify election results. But it still would require they not participate in certifying election machines and other responsibilities of the office.
“One of the most important things we do as elected officials is avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest,’’ Bennett said Tuesday. “And we have rules that require us to admit conflicts of interest when they do exist.’’
Bennett is himself a former secretary of state who engaged in partisan politics while in office.
He never faced conflict concerns or complaints while performing his election oversight duties in a race where his own name was on the ballot. But he did draw some scrutiny in 2012 when, after agreeing not to endorse political candidates, he agreed to co-chair the presidential bid of Republican Mitt Romney.
Bennett noted that his amendment means any secretary of state can still preside over the required election results canvass, the formal counting of votes.
“It simply says that the other aspects of the election, which the Secretary of State’s Office performs, should be performed by other people in the office, not personally by the secretary whose name is on the ballot,’’ Bennett said.
The Senate amendment means the House will have to vote on the bill again before it heads to Hobbs for a signature or a veto.
Democrats said the measure was another example of GOP lawmakers embracing conspiracy theories rather than pushing back against unfounded allegations that undermine public trust in the state’s elections.
The measure requires that the state’s top election official not participate in overseeing elections in which they are on the ballot. Video courtesy of Arizona Capitol Television.
The secretary of state writes the rules that counties use to run elections, though that requires the consent of the attorney general and the governor. The secretary also certifies and runs accuracy tests on election equipment.
But it is each of the state’s 15 counties that do the bulk of the actual election administration in Arizona.
“If we were really concerned with faith in our elections, we would take up our responsibility to explain how elections really work, instead of entertaining conspiracy theories that this proposal is built on,’’ said Sen. Juan Mendez, D-Tempe.
Sen. Priya Sundareshan, D-Tucson, said removing the secretary’s ability to do the job they are elected to do because his or her name is on the ballot that election “begs the question of what their job is.’’
“But more fundamentally, this bill is stemming from conspiracy theories,’’ Sundareshan said. “These theories are unfounded, there (has) been no evidence to support the necessity for this bill. And more to the point, there are plenty of statewide elected officers who also have played roles in the elections that are not contained here.’’
Finchem leveled multiple accusations against Hobbs in a lawsuit he filed after he lost to Fontes by more than 120,000 votes in November’s election.
Among his allegations was that Hobbs should have stepped away entirely from her duties as secretary of state.
He cited her actions in 2021 to have Twitter flag some of his tweets as misinformation. Finchem said that led to the suspension of his Twitter account and unfairly influenced the election.
He also alleged Hobbs failed to ensure the proper federal official signed a certificate that qualified a laboratory that certifies election equipment.
The suit was dismissed in December. And Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Julian last month sanctioned Finchem for filing the suit, saying it “was groundless and not brought in good faith.’’
Finchem has since filed an appeal.
On Tuesday, Mendez pointed out that the proposal from Jones and the arguments for HB2308 were very similar to those raised in Finchem’s lawsuit that the judge said were not brought in good faith.
“By extension (that) would mean that this proposal is groundless and not brought in front of us with good faith,’’ Mendez said.
But Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli, R-Lake Havasu City, said he agreed with Bennett about the appearance of a conflict.
“This removes the conflict of interest and the theory of a conspiracy,’’ Borrelli said.
