Arizona election errors have been making the news … today, and generations ago.
If you haven’t voted yet, stop reading, put down your device, and get to your polling place. Now.
But if you have, then kick back with your I Voted Sticker (you earned it) and enjoy a tale of election administration errors from 1936. In many ways, the lessons it offers are as fresh as 2016.
Our cover story in the November 2016 issue is a terrific one. As attorney–author Joe Kanefield opens his article:
Attorneys Joe Kanefield and Kelly Schwab present at the State Bar of Arizona Convention, June 2013.
“The Arizona Secretary of State faces scrutiny after failing to distribute voter-information pamphlets in advance of an election as required by law. A concerned citizen fears that voters casting ballots for a controversial education proposition will be uninformed and files a complaint to postpone the election. The Secretary responds and urges the election to proceed.”
“No, this story isn’t about Secretary of State Michele Reagan in 2016—it’s about Secretary of State James Kerby, 80 years earlier in 1936. But if the story sounds familiar, that is because history has indeed repeated itself.”
“So, what happens when an election official neglects to perform a mandatory duty required by the Arizona Constitution and state law? What are the consequences? What should they be?”
“This article addresses these questions by reviewing the respective situations in which Secretaries Kerby and Reagan found themselves when they neglected to deliver pamphlets to voters prior to the November 3, 1936, general election and the May 17, 2016, special election.”
You can read the whole story here.
Thank you to Joe Kanefield for conceiving of and writing such a relevant story of ballot woe!
And … Happy Election Day!
AZ Attorney 
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