From Sedona Redrock News October 4, 2023
VOC resident sues Secretary of State Fontes over ballots

"Village of Oak Creek resident Dwight Kadar is suing Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes over a provision in Fontes’ new edition of the state elections procedures manual that permits alternate methods of ballot verification.

Yavapai County Superior Court Judge John D. Napper rejected Fontes’ motion to dismiss the suit on Sept. 1, allowing it to proceed.

Kadar is a joint plaintiff in the suit, which was filed on March 6, with two 501(c)(4) groups, the Arizona Free Enterprise Club and Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections; the latter is a Virginia-based organization. The Republican Party of Arizona joined the suit as a plaintiff on April 17. Kadar has donated more than $110,000 to the party and to Republican candidates over the last 10 years. He ran unsuccessfully for a Sedona Fire District Governing Board seat in 2018."

Read entire article at Redrocknews.com.

Commentary by Bob Karp

The plaintiffs may have a real case here (although very technical and probably specious) and it should be decided by the courts to limit any confusion during the 2024 election cycle.  However, what I find interesting is who signs on for this suit.  Included is the Arizona Republican Party, a wealthy donor, as well as some Republican affiliated 501(c)(4) groups.

Let's remember a few  things:  1)  for over 20 years about 80% of Arizona voters have voted by mail.  Voters like it and until 2020 trusted the process.  2) During that time Republicans routinely won most statewide elections and kept control of both houses of the state legislature.  3)  There were no complaints about election fraud that resulted in major changes in the outcome of contested races.  4) There has been no proof that mail-in ballots are vulnerable to tampering or forgery at a mass level.

So what changed?  Donald Trump lost the 2020 general election.  That's the only thing that changed in Arizona.  Unlike other states that made changes because of the pandemic, Arizona already had in place "no fault" voting by mail.

Now the charge from the GOP is that people don't trust the system and we have to change it.  However, whatever changes are made, and I believe none are necessary, they will not make these people happy if they lose elections again.  The idea is to create more chaos around elections and then make it even more difficult to vote - forcing everyone to vote in person on election day on paper ballots and then count them by hand.

That's certain to cause a drop in participation and increase in potential fraud resulting in a total loss in confidence in our elections.

Thank you Arizona Republicans!

Letter to Cochise County Board of Supervisors

While I appreciate that Assessor Leiendecker believes a return to last century's (actually we had precinct voting up until 2015 ) voting procedures  would be a good thing, he only mentions "sense of community" as a real value.  I would remind him that "voters always vote at the same location in their neighborhood".  is unsupported by reality. In the past polling places often changed and voters had to search for the correct one. Also that the precinct level voting "eliminates long lines".  There is nothing that says that is necessarily correct.  Maybe the lines could be shorter, but by adding many more untrained poll workers and elections equipment to the mix, the likelihood of election day problems goes up.

How would the county run elections in 55 precincts?  Cost of equipment, training, moving highly secured equipment to many more locations, transport of ballots to and from the precincts.  I assume in the background is this wonderful idea of paper ballots that go into a lock box.  Election results would take weeks to accurately count.

Leiendeck has a 1950s view of the elections world and it doesn't line up with today's working families who need to be able to vote at the most convenient location which often is close to work so they can go at lunch or to and from work.

Vote centers are popular with the voting public and when the public finds out that for some nostalgic reason or something more nefarious, the costs of elections goes up three or four hundred percent, they will remember the politicians that ushered in this step back.  Let's go to the data.  Approximately 80% of Arizona voters vote by mail-in ballot.  The public doesn't need a "community event" on election day.  Just an easy way to cast their vote.

Don't do it!

By the way I don't miss "the election day process of voting at the local precinct polling location, seeing neighbors and poll workers who you know  and live around."

 A final word.  Of course Mr. Leiendeck has every right to comment on matters before the Board of Supervisors.  AS A PRIVATE citizen if it doesn't directly relate to his elected position in county government.  However, he signed his letter to the BoS has "Cochise County Assessor" meddling in a decision that his office should stay out of.