Election Integrity at Issue in Pima County, Arizona

Tucson, Arizona -- With Democratic Party members and incumbent Pima County Supervisors Sharon Bronson, Ramon Valadez, and Richard Elias facing challengers in the September primaries -- due largely to the perception that they stonewalled against an investigation of the 2006 RTA special election by the state Attorney General -- election integrity was already to be a major issue in the 2008 elections.

An affidavit alleging that the County elections division's computer operator admitted in a social setting to "fixing" the election on orders of his superiors brings the matter to the forefront, raising the question of whether some or all of the incumbent County Supervisors illegally interfered in the election or covered up such interference.

In 2006 voters in Pima County voted in a special election on a comprehensive transportation plan (including establishment of a Regional Transportation Authority) and its associated tax, approving the plan, according to released results, by a 60%-40% margin and the tax by 58%-42%. The plan was controversial at the time due largely to inclusion of "roads to nowhere" seen as giveaways to developers, a widening of Grant Road that would necessitate County purchase of dozens of homes and relocation of miles of businesses, and streetcar lines, which had previously been rejected by voters.

On top of that, evidence that County and State employees and resources were used to promote passage of the measure and that unauthorized, illegal vote summary reports were printed by County employees as early (mail) ballots were coming in has caused doubts to persist about the validity of the election's result. State Attorney General Terry Goddard's initial investigation found irregularities and security holes but no evidence that the election had been fixed. The incumbent supervisors, especially Valadez and Bronson, fought hard against release of election databases to the Democratic Party, plaintiffs in the suit over election integrity.