Gov. Katie Hobbs creates bipartisan elections panel to recommend changes

PHOENIX — Seeking to restore public confidence, Gov. Katie Hobbs on Friday created a bipartisan panel to study the state’s election system and recommend changes.

The move comes on the heels of what has been arguably the most controversial state election in decades. In fact, there are still three active legal challenges to the reported outcome by those who lost.

Hobbs, who as secretary of state had been Arizona’s top elected official, said those who administer races “rely on clear and effective laws and procedures’’ to do their jobs.

“Improving Arizona’s election laws requires collaboration among state and local election administrators, election security experts, and voting rights advocates,’’ the new governor said in her executive order. And she said a bipartisan and coordinated effort will identify solutions “that enhance the accessibility and security of Arizona’s elections.’’

Hobbs said she wants the report by Nov. 1. That would allow time to prepare recommendations that could be approved in the 2024 legislative session and, depending on how quickly lawmakers act, potentially be in place for the election that year.

But the deadline also accomplishes another goal. It could give the governor an excuse to veto some of the changes already being considered by Republican lawmakers this session by saying any alterations should await the task force recommendations.

The governor set up the panel, which will have at least 11 members, to guarantee representation from various interests, including Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes or his designee as well as two county recorders nominated by Senate President Warren Petersen of Gilbert and House Speaker Ben Toma of Peoria, both of whom both Republicans.

Also included will be an election security expert who will be named later, two election directors nominated by counties, a member of a “voting advocacy organization,’’ someone who has a background in campaign finance laws and someone who understands election equipment and technology.

The expertise of that last person is likely to be crucial given that there have been complaints that the machines that tabulate votes essentially are “black boxes,’’ with no open-source codes of exactly how they do their jobs. And the companies that make these devices generally have been unwilling to share their software saying it is proprietary and confidential.

Those same concerns have been behind calls to outlaw electronic tabulation of ballots in favor of hand counts.

Legislation to require that has gone nowhere at least in part amid concerns that it would be impractical to count 2.6 million ballots, each of which includes dozens of individual races.

And a lawsuit to force that change, filed by failed gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake and Mark Finchem who lost his race for secretary of state, was thrown out of federal court. It is now on appeal.

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One goal is to ensure “consistent, secure, and accessible election administration and voter registration practices across the state.’’

That was highlighted just this past month in the recount of the race for state attorney general.

Pinal County ended up with more changes between the initial count and the final tally than the other 14 counties combined. County officials have blamed the problems on human error.

Another is to help ensure that election officials, administrators and poll workers get training.

In Maricopa County there were complaints that election workers did not inform voters of what they can do to ensure their votes were counted after some tabulators would not accept their ballots.

One option was to go to another polling place. But that required that voters be informed that they need to “check out’’ of the first site or the records at the second site would show they already had voted. That apparently did not happen at all locations.

One interest group not included on the task force falls into the category of what could be called “election deniers’’ who have been at the forefront of seeking to overturn the results, not just of the 2022 election but even the 2020 presidential race. Hobbs press aide Josselyn Berry said her boss did not think it was necessary.

“The list of committee members will include experts,’’ she said. “And those experts will no doubt be aware of and speak to the policies and processes that need improvement.

And Berry said there was something else in who Hobbs did — and did not — include.

“She’s already made it clear she doesn’t want to give any credence to election deniers,’’ Berry said about her boss.

“We want this task force to actually be effective,’’ she continued. “So what use would it be to have obstructionists for the sake of it?’’