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Special Meeting Minutes
Monday, January 29, 2024
9:30 AM
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
Maricopa County, Arizona
(and the Boards of Directors of the Flood Control
District, Library District, Stadium District, Improvement
Districts and/or Board of Deposit)
"The mission of Maricopa County is
to provide regional leadership and
fiscally responsible, necessary
public services to its residents so
they can enjoy living in healthy and
safe communities”
Board Members
Jack Sellers, Chairman, District 1
Thomas Galvin, Vice Chairman, District 2
Bill Gates, District 3
Clint Hickman, District 4
Steve Gallardo, District 5
County Manager
Jen Pokorski
Clerk of the Board
Juanita Garza
Meeting Location
Supervisors' Auditorium
205 W Jefferson,
Phoenix, AZ 85003
BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
Chairman Sellers opened the meeting and asked the Clerk to call the roll.
The Board of Supervisors of Maricopa County, Phoenix, Arizona, convened in Special Session
at 9:30 AM on Monday, January 29, 2024, in the Supervisors' Auditorium, 205 W. Jefferson
Phoenix, AZ 85003, with the following members present: Jack Sellers, Chairman, District 1;
Thomas Galvin, Vice Chairman, District 2; Bill Gates, Supervisor, District 3; Clint Hickman,
Supervisor, District 4; Steve Gallardo, Supervisor, District 5. Also present: Juanita Garza, Clerk;
Kelly Gardiner, Minutes Coordinator; Jen Pokorski, County Manager; Andrea Cummings, Legal
Counsel.
PRESENTATION AND ACTION
1.
PRESENTATION AND ADOPTION OF THE 2024 MARCH PRESIDENTIAL
PREFERENCE ELECTION PLANS
1) Presentation of the Maricopa County Election Plans for the 2024 March Presidential
Preference Election.
Zach Schira, Executive Director, County Manager's Office
Scott Jarrett, Director of In-Person Voting and Tabulation
Rey Valenzuela, Director of Mail Voting and Election Services
2) Adopt the Maricopa County Election Plan for the 2024 March Presidential
Preference Election. (C-06-24-537-X-00)
Chairman Sellers introduced the Elections Team who would be presenting the 2024
Election Plan for the Presidential Preference Election (PPE) and March Jurisdictional
Elections.
Zach Schira, Executive Director, County Manager’s Office, thanked the Board for the
time to present the Election Plan for their consideration. He introduced Scott Jarrett,
Director of In-Person Voting and Tabulation, reporting to the County Manager’s Office
and Rey Valenzuela, Director of Mail Voting and Election Services, reporting to the
Recorder’s Office.
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Monday, January 29, 2024
Page 2 of 11
Mr. Schira discussed the Election Improvements that have been ongoing, with an
emphasis on process improvement. He stated the anticipated MCTEC renovation will
not be complete until 2027 and the County will be investing $6 million in the current
location to accommodate the increase in population and improve the central processing
facility. It is estimated that 600,000 more voters will participate in the 2024 General
Election and the upgrades will allow for faster tabulation on election night. He said any
large-scale improvement in reporting time will be realized after the move to the new
MCTEC building.
Chairman Sellers confirmed these improvements would speed up the overall tabulation
of votes for future elections not including the upcoming PPE and General elections.
Mr. Jarrett said voters still choose to get early ballots and drop them off on Election
Day. This option slows the tabulation process because there are more verification steps
to be taken with those ballots. He said the results are official when the Board of
Supervisors canvass and certify the results, which differs from the networks declaring
winners before the canvass.
Supervisor Gates commented on the improvements and praised the Elections Team.
Supervisor Hickman commented on the lack of attendance at this meeting, both online
and in person. He quipped that the process has been improved and the public is
satisfied so no one needs to attend.
Mr. Schira expanded on the details of the slide, including staffing, election reporting,
and printers that have replaced the previous “problem” printers. Mr. Jarrett discussed
the vigorous testing that the printers have gone through, with many check lists to
mitigate problems.
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Monday, January 29, 2024
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Mr. Jarrett discussed the details of the PPE and who is eligible to vote. He stated every
state does it differently which creates confusion for some voters. Mr. Jarrett said there
would be a communication plan presented to help the public understand. He said with
two Jurisdictional Elections occurring simultaneously, each will have separate ballots.
Supervisor Gates clarified a typographical error on the slide regarding the parties that
have opted out of the PPE. The slide should read “The Libertarian, Green, and No-
Labels parties have opted out of Arizona’s March PPE”.
Mr. Jarrett discussed the different timelines associated with the PPE Election. He noted
that there have been candidates who have suspended their campaign whose names
will still appear on the ballot because their paperwork was not received in time before
ballots were printed. Chairman Sellers pointed out a typographical error in the first
column above. The December date should read “December 18, 2023”.
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Monday, January 29, 2024
Page 4 of 11
Supervisor Gallardo commented on the Jurisdictional Elections occurring in the same
timeframe as the PPE which can create confusion. He suggested additional
communication to clarify that these are two separate contests with two separate ballots.
Mr. Jarrett agreed and discussed the variety of processes that are in place to handle
those issues.
Mr. Jarrett reviewed the numbers on the bar graph above. He said Elections is
anticipating a record turnout for the 2024 election cycle.
Supervisor Galvin asked about historical numbers from the 2008 and 2016 election for
the number of day-of voters vs early voters and how to project those numbers out to
the 2024 election. Mr. Jarrett said the Elections Department has a lot of historic
statistics and anticipated PPE Election Day turnout to be high. He said the Elections
Department is working hard to educate citizens on the Closed PPE and assist voters
who need additional guidance.
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Monday, January 29, 2024
Page 5 of 11
Mr. Jarrett said the above slide shows the early voting list numbers have increased
steadily since 2016 for both Republicans and Democrats.
Supervisor Gallardo commented on the amount of effort that goes into holding an
election for Maricopa County. This informational presentation was created for the public
and he was discouraged that the public was not present to hear the details.
Mr. Jarrett discussed the BeBallotReady.vote website as a one-stop shop for voters,
designed to help the public with voting information. Supervisor Gates commended
Elections on the thoroughness of the Be Ballot Ready webpage.
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Monday, January 29, 2024
Page 6 of 11
Mr. Jarrett discussed the details on the Informing Voters slide. He said Phil the Ballot
would be the official mascot again for Maricopa County Elections.
Mr. Valenzuela discussed each of the five key points on the above slide and said this
Election Plan is comprehensive and covers all the upcoming elections not just the PPE.
Supervisor Gates asked about Artificial Intelligence (AI) being used in signature
verification. Mr. Valenzuela said the signature verification has always been conducted
by human beings 100%.
Mr. Valenzuela spoke about the receipt of affidavit envelopes and the scanning that is
done immediately to ensure the envelope has a signature and can continue through
the process. Supervisor Gallardo reiterated that it would have been good to have the
citizens who are skeptical of elections to be at the meeting today to better understand
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Monday, January 29, 2024
Page 7 of 11
this entire process. Supervisor Hickman asked Mr. Valenzuela to clarify the "we" that
has been mentioned many times during this meeting. Mr. Valenzuela said the “we” is
comprised of citizen boards (all political parties included), temporary employees, citizen
volunteers, and Elections staff.
Mr. Valenzuela explained the difference between the green envelopes that are used
for either the PPE or Jurisdictional Election ballots.
Supervisor Hickman asked about the color of the envelopes. Mr. Valenzuela said it is
a statutory requirement to have opaque envelopes to obscure the marks on the ballot.
Mr. Valenzuela explained the Voter Assistance Programs and highlighted the
importance of these special accommodations so that no voter is disenfranchised. This
request can be made on the BeBallotReady.vote webpage and needs to be requested
eleven days before the election.
Special Meeting Minutes
Monday, January 29, 2024
Page 8 of 11
Supervisor Gallardo emphasized the value of these programs to ensure that voters who
need assistance can exercise their right to vote.
Mr. Jarrett discussed the projected numbers and location of the in-person voting
locations. He said this Phased Opening approach has been used for past elections.
Mr. Jarrett also discussed the wait time analysis and being able to calculate wait times
based on the number of locations and the historic number of voters who come out to
vote. Mr. Jarrett confirmed that all Vote Centers will be open 6am until 7pm. He added
that the voting locations hours of operation will be posted on the Elections website.
Mr. Jarrett said improvements in the in-person Command Center and their ability to
communicate virtually in real time has addressed many of the previous problems seen
on Election Day.
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Monday, January 29, 2024
Page 9 of 11
Mr. Jarrett discussed the many volunteers that make up the citizen boards and their
tasks for the PPE election. He said there are many opportunities to get involved as
seen on the slide above and added the boards are made up of Republicans and
Democrats. He said over 40 truck drivers are being hired due to the increased number
of tabulation centers and voters. Supervisor Hickman talked about the difficulty in
getting qualified truck drivers and he would help if needed. He also mentioned the need
for bipartisan boards and wanted to make sure there was proper balance.
Mr. Jarrett highlighted the variety of features that go into the tabulation operations. He
said all the Maricopa County machines require federal and state certification. Maricopa
County is inviting the political parties to assist in the pre-test process including the Logic
and Accuracy Testing to help reassure the public of the transparency.
~ Supervisor Galvin left the meeting at 11:20 am and would not return ~
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Monday, January 29, 2024
Page 10 of 11
Supervisor Hickman stressed the importance of transparency and given the history,
asked if it would be possible to invite the State Political Party Chairman to be present
for the Logic and Accuracy testing so they observe the same thing as the County Party
Chairman. Mr. Jarrett said they would consider that invitation.
Mr. Jarrett discussed the chain of custody process and the stringent procedure that the
County follows. He described in detail the steps that are taken and showed the forms
that assist in the chain of custody and the reconciliation of information received. He
stated there are many redundancies to aid in accurate counting of ballots.
Supervisor Gates commented that it is a shame that there are so few citizens watching
this meeting. He reminded the listening audience that this Election Plan is available for
anyone to read if they want to know what is being done. He thanked Elections for all
the hard work.
Supervisor Hickman talked about the “closed primary” and asked about the cost of
these elections. Mr. Jarrett said the budgeted cost for the PPE is based on the number
of registered voters in the County at $1.25 per voter. The State reimburses the County
$1.25 per voter and the cost difference is paid by the County. Mr. Jarrett said the County
will request the entire amount for reimbursement, but the State is only statutorily
required to reimburse the stated amount per voter. He said in the 2020 election, the
state reimbursed Maricopa County the total amount requested.
Supervisor Hickman thanked the Elections team for the new and improved process. He
asked about the chain of custody and asked about how many signatures does it take.
Mr. Jarrett said 3400 forms with 2 signatures per form gives rough numbers. Supervisor
Hickman said it is impressive that when there is a human error in the forms, the answer
will come out in the reconciliation.
Supervisor Gates echoed Supervisor Hickman comments.
Supervisor Gallardo said with all these processes in place, and as thorough as the
Elections Department is, he was astounded by the people who “just throw rocks” at the
Board and dispute all the results. He said the Independents, Republicans, and
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Monday, January 29, 2024
Page 11 of 11
Democrats all need to be able to participate in the PPE rather than the Closed Primary
that exists in Arizona and that change needs to happen at the Legislature. Supervisor
Gallardo stated public education is necessary, and the Elections Department has done
a fabulous job.
Chairman Sellers reiterated his appreciation for the great Election Plan that has been
implemented to manage a transparent, secure, and efficient election.
Motion to approve the adoption of the 2024 March Presidential Preference Election
Plan by Supervisor Bill Gates, seconded by Supervisor Steve Gallardo
Ayes: Jack Sellers, Bill Gates, Clint Hickman, Steve Gallardo
Absent: Thomas Galvin
MEETING ADJOURNED
There being no further business to come before the Board, the meeting was adjourned.
_____________________________
Jack Sellers, Chairman of the Board
ATTEST:
____________________________
Juanita Garza, Clerk of the Board