Arizona Sen. Justine Wadsack denies posting ballot that doesn't belong to her

The photo shows a filled-out ballot with the races all Tucson residents are eligible to vote for, but also has the option to vote on the Tucson Unified School District’s bond election, a choice that Wadsack, according to her voter registration, can’t cast a vote in.

The first-term Republican’s current voter registration, according to Pima County Recorder records, show Wadsack lives in southeast Tucson in the Vail school district.

That means “A voter who lives at that address would not have received a ballot with a Tucson Unified School District proposition,” the recorder’s office said.

The recorder’s office said it reviewed Wadsack’s voter record, the assigned ballot style she should receive per the Pima County Elections Department and the county’s ballot printing vendor to find “Sen. Wadsack was sent the correct ballot that corresponds with the address on her Voter Registration record,” the office said in a statement.

Wadsack insists the ballot pictured in her social media post is her own and was addressed to her proper address. A piece of paper visible behind the filled-out ballot shows her last name and zip code corresponding with her voter registration address: 85747.

“I did not have anything to do with elections. I opened up a ballot, and I took a picture of what I was actually voting on to help my voters,” she said. “I’ve not touched anybody else’s ballots. My hand has not touched another ballot. So I don’t know what to tell you.”

While it’s permissible to post photos of your own ballot in Arizona, it’s illegal to post another person’s ballot selections, “except to an authorized person lawfully assisting the voter,” according to state law. Violators found guilty could be hit with a class 2 misdemeanor, carrying a penalty of up to four months in jail and $750 in fines.

Wadsack also pushed back against that notion, telling the Arizona Daily Star: “If I wanted to take every family member that I have, or even a friend of mine, or a constituent, and they gave me permission to post their ballot, I’d have the right to do so.”

The senator insisted the issue lies within the recorder’s office, even though public records show Wadsack is ineligible to vote in the TUSD bond election.

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An address attached to Wadsack’s old voter registration, which she changed in February 2022 according to recorder’s office records, is within TUSD boundaries.

“If you do anything other than print that I was sent my ballot . . . then I’m going to challenge the recorder’s office has just conducted a fraudulent election,” she told the Star.

In response to questions Tucson Sentinel Publisher Dylan Smith posed in response to her social media post, Wadsack said, “This isn’t a TUSD School Board election. This is about MY taxes going to TUSD, so I get to have a say.”

However, TUSD is funded from property taxes collected from those within the district’s boundaries, state legislature funding and grants.

The 2023 property tax statement attached to Wadsack’s voter registration address shows the location owed taxes to the Vail School District, and not TUSD, according to Pima County Treasurer records.

Arizona Democrats released a statement Thursday calling for answers on the alleged crime of posting someone else’s ballot.

“Senator Wadsack has repeatedly called for transparency within our election systems. After posting a ballot online that the Pima County Recorder confirmed was not hers, her latest social media stunt proves that she does not apply the same standard of transparency for herself,” said State Sen. Priya Sundareshan, a Democrat representing LD 18. “I have confidence in our election officials to carry out elections in a secure manner, and Senator Wadsack’s actions only stir voters’ confusion in that very secure process. Voters deserve answers.”

Wadsack won the 2022 election for the state Senate seat in LD 17 — a Republican stronghold that runs from Marana to southeast metro Tucson. She previously lost the 2020 race for the state Senate seat in what was LD 10 prior to redistricting, when the area had a larger population of registered Democrats.

After winning the Republican primary election in the LD 17 race, supporters of then Sen. Vince Leach, Wadsack’s primary competitor, challenged her nomination in a Pima County Superior Court lawsuit alleging she didn’t live in the district she was running for. Wadsack emerged victorious in the lawsuit.

Wadsack testified in court she moved from her home on East Sixth Street in midtown Tucson to a room of one of her supporters on the east side. The east-side room is in LD 17, but not the midtown home, which she owns in a trust with her husband.