Canvassing the Election: Board of Supervisors Special Meeting, Nov. 28, 2022

This morning’s Special Meeting of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors was to officially validate the canvass” of the results of the Nov. 8th mid-term general elections. The meeting was scheduled to begin around 9:30am, but it did not get underway until 9:55am. It followed an earlier Executive Meeting that was called for 8:00am to discuss legal matters that had cropped up after a letter was sent on Saturday, Nov. 19th to Tom Liddy, Civil Division Chief in the Maricopa County Attorney’s office from Jennifer Wright, Arizona Assistant Attorney General.

You can read the letter here. (If that link dies, read the letter here.)

Once the meeting got started, Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates (District 3) made some opening remarks about what the main agenda item of the meeting would be–canvassing the election results–setting the ground rules for how the meeting was to be conducted, especially the Public Comment section. “No outbursts.” “No profanity.” “Two minutes and you’re done, etc..”

County Recorder Stephen Richer spoke first, giving his overview of the elections with regard to the components of the balloting process that he, by law, is responsible for: voter registration and the early voting phase.

Among the various statistics he shared was this one: as of Oct. 11, 2022 (the deadline for registering to vote in this election), Maricopa County registered voters fall into the following four groups/political parties. Numbers as cited by Recorder Richer are approximate:

  • 731 thousand are Democrat
  • 841 thousand are Republican
  • 20 thousand are Libertarian
  • 843 thousand are independent or “party not declared”

Supervisors Gallardo (District 5) and Sellers (District 1) took a few minutes to compliment Recorder Richer on the job he has done since taking office in Jan. 2021.

The Public Comment section of the meeting then began. This took up a large chunk of the meeting, running over 90 minutes. In the video below, the Public Comment section runs from about 51:30 to about 2:25:45. It was frequently interrupted by members of the audience, with Chairman Gates rebuking them for their repeated “outbursts”.

After some shouting and commotion involving members of the audience as the public comments section was wrapped up by Chairman Gates, there was a two-minute intermission before the meeting shifted to a presentation about Election Day and the various processes involved with canvassing the results by Maricopa County Elections Co-Directors Scott Jarrett and Rey Valenzuela. In the video below, their presentation runs from about 2:29:15 to about 4:28:20.

During the two-hour presentation, Board members asked questions, made observations, comments and suggestions, all of which were addressed and discussed at length by Mr. Jarrett and Mr. Valenzuela.

Then, after some final remarks and observations by individual members of the Board, Supervisor Gallardo (District 5), at Chairman Gates’ invitation, introduced a motion to approve the results of the mid-term general elections in Maricopa County. The motion was seconded by Supervisor Hickman (District 4). A voice-vote was then taken.

To find out the results of their vote, go to 4:46:00 in the video:

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