Arizona GOP officials squabble as presidential primary to go ahead as planned

PHOENIX — Arizona Republicans will get to vote as usual in next year's presidential preference election after the party chairman rejected a demand to cancel the state-run election and have the party run it instead. 

The decision announced Friday by state GOP Chair Jeff DeWit means early and mail-in voting as well as Election Day balloting on March 19, 2024, will go on as usual, with registered Republicans choosing who they back to be the party’s nominee for president. Friday was the last day for the party to pull out of the state-run Presidential Preference Election.

Leaders of the Maricopa County Republican Party wanted to ban all early and mail-in voting and hold a party-run election "on paper ballots, in a one-day, one-vote election, hand-counted at the precinct level." They cited "election security'' as the driver, blaming such issues for Donald Trump's 2020 defeat and gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake's 2022 loss.

DeWit, however, said the county party’s demand to call a meeting of the state party's executive committee could not be met because party rules require 30-days notice for meetings. The county party's resolution was adopted — without notice — just six days before the Sept. 1 deadline to inform the state's top election official, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, of a decision to pull out.

The Arizona Democratic Party is widely expected to cancel its presidential primary and assign its party convention delegates to President Joe Biden. It is common for parties to cancel presidential primaries when their party holds the White House and the incumbent is seeking reelection. The state GOP did not participate in the 2020 election when then-President Trump was seeking a second term.

The state GOP remained mum all week as to its plans, meanwhile, as Republicans fought over their choice. 

"Parallel" election offered

DeWit offered the Maricopa County Republicans what he called a "compromise solution.''

It would allow the Maricopa GOP — and not Republican parties in the other 14 Arizona counties — to run a "parallel'' election under its proposed rules with only in-person voting on one day, ballots counted by hand, and results released the same night.

But the only votes that actually count would be those cast using the regular state-run process, not those cast in the county-run plan, DeWit told Capitol Media Services. He said his compromise proposal would allow the county party to see if its plan can work and doesn't break the bank.

"They can ask voters to come and vote in both,'' he said.

"They know the real one is the state election, but they can do basically like a real-time audit if they want,'' DeWit said. "They can run their own thing and see if their results match. Because they say it can be done very cheaply and easily and so this gives them a chance to.”

"Most ignorant thing"

The decision left Craig Berland, the top official in the Maricopa GOP, fuming, saying it would do nothing but confuse voters, and wouldn't count anyway.

"I'm sorry, that's just the most ignorant thing I've ever …,'' he said.

"I can't believe that anybody with a conscience would come up with such a stupid idea,” Berland continued. "You know, I've held my tongue on Chairman DeWit but I can tell you that that is plain stupid.''

He also called DeWit's excuse of not having the time to consider the county's proposal disingenuous.

Berland said there are provisions for emergency meetings. He pointed to a June special meeting called with just three days' notice to approve the purchase of a new headquarters office for the state party.

"Quite honestly, I've tired of the whole game,'' Berland said. "It falls squarely on his shoulders," he said of DeWit. "He's the only one that can go to the secretary of state and change the direction of the PPE election. And so he's going to have to accept responsibility for whatever decisions he's making.''

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

DeWit said he had been working all week to craft a response to the county resolution passed last Saturday and to see if a meeting of the state party’s executive committee could be held to hear the Maricopa County proposal and potentially vote on it. But he was clearly not supportive, sending a letter Wednesday packed with quotes from multiple unnamed committee members raising a raft of questions about the party running its own election.

In a separate letter sent to executive committee members late Thursday night, DeWit said he did not set out to kill what the county party sought. But he said there was simply no way to pull it off.

"I approached this with a mindset of collaboration, and a desire to see if it was a doable thing,'' he wrote. "Upon detailed consultation with our legal counsel, it is now evident that acting on this resolution would breach our bylaws, placing the AZGOP at risk of countless legal complications.''

Cost, legal issues

The top issue was cost, which he said would be in excess of $10 million for the party to run its own statewide presidential primary.

State lawmakers appropriated $5.9 million for the presidential primary election earlier this year. But that involves fewer voting locations as many counties use vote centers versus the precinct-level voting at more than 1,700 locations statewide that Maricopa County Republicans wanted.

That meant not just the cost of staffing those locations but also informing more than 1.4 million registered Republicans of the vote plan and where they would have to go to cast a ballot. The state party currently has less than $200,000 in the bank.

Other issues included how to ensure that disabled people and military members stationed outside Arizona had an opportunity to vote.

The party's attorney, Lee Miller, raised legal issues in a letter accompanying DeWit's announcement that the regular election would go on as planned.

He noted that only a fraction of GOP voters would likely participate in the county's one-day election and he warned of lawsuits. Currently, 90% of Arizona voters cast mail-in ballots.

"An opt out of the PPE with the intention of moving to a more closed delegate selection process almost guarantees the party will be sued on equal protection and due process grounds,'' Miller wrote.

He also said that trying to hold the election would likely ultimately fail.

"The party has no well-articulated plan to replace the PPE and no money with which to communicate this change to Arizona Republican voters,'' Miller wrote. "As a result, the party would almost certainly be forced back into the (state-run) PPE by court order. There is simply not enough time or resources to make that shift in this presidential election cycle while upholding the requirement of the bylaws that the party act fairly to all primary candidates.”

Maricopa County's focus

Berland said he remains convinced there was fraud in the 2020 election, despite the repeated failure of Republicans in Arizona and elsewhere to persuade any court that is true. Even Trump’s own attorney general, William Barr, said there was no evidence of voter fraud that could have affected the result of the 2020 election.

"The Maricopa County Republican Committee, our No. 1 focus is election integrity and all of the things associated with it,'' Berland said.

Berland said huge resources have been spent by the party on the issue, including efforts to clean up voter rolls and bring a plan to other counties to push election security.

"I can tell you that Maricopa County Republicans are extremely active and spending thousands of man hours in this game,'' Berland said. "And to be disparaged by the AZ GOP’s chairman the way we have is unconscionable.''