Arizona attorney general won't try to postpone special election despite 'fiasco'

PHOENIX — Attorney General Mark Brnovich refused Thursday to try to postpone Tuesday’s special election despite foul-ups by Secretary of State Michele Reagan, saying there’s nothing in state law to permit that.

At a hastily called press conference, Brnovich unloaded on Reagan for failing to comply with state laws requiring voters to get ballot pamphlets explaining the two issues before they got their actual early ballots. And he said there needs to be an investigation of why Reagan hid that information from the public for weeks.

“This was a complete fiasco,” Brnovich said.

“I don’t know what the right word to express it is,” he continued. “But it pisses me off, as an Arizonan, as the attorney general.”

But Brnovich laid some of the blame on lawmakers for leaving him with his hands tied.

“We know that we want strict compliance with election laws,” he said. “But the legislature never provided any penalty.”

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Reagan spokesman Matt Roberts said Thursday afternoon his boss was too busy to speak to reporters.

“She is meeting with staff to further review what happened and how we can get better,” he said.

Roberts conceded earlier this week that at least 200,000 pamphlets explaining propositions 123 and 124 did not go out on time. The first deals with increased funding for public schools; the second alters constitutional provisions on public pensions.

The homes appear to be those with two people on the list to get early ballots. That means more than 400,000 voters could be affected.

Roberts said the problem was with an outside company that was supposed to prepare mailing lists.

“It’s by no means any deflection of what happened,” he said. “The secretary accepted responsibility for it.”