Who will be play the role of the Cyber Ninjas in the new release of "Arizona Election Audit 2024"? That is probably the least important of the many questions that Arizona lawmakers Wendy Rogers and Alex Kolodin have prompted with their new announcement of a "Memorandum of Understanding" with Runbeck Election Services.
The press release coming from the Legislature touts their agreement as a "significant achievement" and attaches a one page MOU (without a signature page). It is reproduced below.
Runbeck is a private company that contracts with Maricopa County, most of Arizona's other counties and elections departments throughout the country to provide specialized elections services. Runbeck is currently owned by Black Mountain Investment Co., which is run by Mihai Toma. Toma's brother, Ben, is the Speaker of the Arizona House and said he would divest his interest in the company last year. (No new financial disclosure statements have been filed since that statement, either with the state or the U.S. House.)
For the most part, the new agreement involves minor improvements to oversight of Runbeck's processes, some of which have been the subject of public records requests in the past. (Runbeck had said it wasn't subject to PRRs.) For example, Runbeck is allowing the Republicans to look at video footage of Runbeck's loading dock from election night in 2022.
The 2nd item in the MOU raises more questions, however. Titled "Legislative Audits of Software", it accepts a new taxpayer-funded audit by some third party hired by the legislative Republicans of Runbeck's use of software in Maricopa County's signature verification and ballot duplication process.
And, this raises a number of questions:
1) Individual legislators - even if they are committee chairs - do not typically have the authority to enter into agreements. (Now-Senate President Warren Petersen had similar issues when he issued post-election subpoenas.) Although no signature page is shown, how are they binding the Legislature (and taxpayers)?
2) At least one of the items seem to allow Rogers and Kolodin to appoint two observers to watch the 2022 loading dock video. Yet, it does not provide for bipartisan observation, as is typical in elections processes. How do they think they can shut out the minority party?
3) This MOU is also a clear end run around the Maricopa County Recorder's Office and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors - both Republican-controlled. How does Runbeck enter into this MOU without written permission from the agencies that have hired it?
4) In the PRR lawsuits, Runbeck has claimed to be exempt from the requests on the basis that it is simply a contractor with a government agency. Will this MOU end up destroying that defense? And, if so, is that necessarily a bad thing? The Cyber Ninjas might have something to say about this.
5) Does Runbeck's private sharing of information with two hyper-partisan lawmakers allow for selective and misleading release of information - misinformation or disinformation, even - similar to recent disputes in the U.S. Congress?
6) Similar to the State Senate/Cyber Ninjas audit, is this furthering the bypassing of the longstanding, ever-evolving body of *laws* and regulations ensuring that Arizona's elections are efficiently, fairly and securely run?
Many more questions could - and, should - be asked about this odd agreement between individual state lawmakers and a county vendor. But more importantly, who and how are going to answer these questions? We have begun to ask around, and will supplement as needed.
Responses from state officials, county officials, other lawmakers (and maybe the courts) incoming.
This article was reported by AZ Law founder Paul Weich.
"AZ Law" includes articles, commentaries and updates about opinions from the Arizona Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme Court, as well as trial and appellate courts, etc. AZ Law is founded by Phoenix attorney Paul Weich, and joins Arizona's Politics on the internet.
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