RNC sues Maricopa County over poll workers; county calls it 'political stunt'

PHOENIX - The Republican National Committee is suing Maricopa County after weeks of back-and-forth over whether the county recruited enough Republican poll workers for the August primary election.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Maricopa County Superior Court, claims that county officials aren't complying with a public records request. It alleges the county failed to provide documentation of its efforts to recruit Republican election workers for the August election and an update on its temporary election staff recruitment for the Nov. 8 general election.

In letters sent to the county before the lawsuit, attorneys for the Republican National Committee allege that the county favored Democrats over Republicans in its election hiring before the primary, bringing on a total of 857 Democratic poll workers and 712 Republicans.

The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal battles over election processes and procedures between Maricopa County and the state and federal branches of the Republican Party. The Republican National Committee previously sued the county over the 2020 presidential election results.

County officials say the lawsuit is a "political stunt." In a statement from the county Elections Command Center Wednesday, officials didn't dispute the numbers but said they complied with state law and reached out to all of the potential Republican election workers recommended by Maricopa County Republican Committee leadership.

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"The idea that a Republican recorder and four Republican board members would try to keep Republicans out of elections is absurd," the statement read. "We contact everyone on the lists the parties provide us."

Bill Gates, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors chairman, and Stephen Richer, Maricopa County recorder, head the Elections Command Center.

Officials with the Republican National Committee did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

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State law requires bipartisan representation but has caveats

Statute doesn't require the county to hire equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans to work the polls and its election boards but does require bipartisan representation. For partisan elections, if a head poll worker of a voting center, known as the inspector, is a Democrat, the second-in-command, called the marshal, should be a Republican, according to the Arizona Elections Procedures Manual.

But, the law includes a caveat that if it’s impossible to sufficiently staff a polling place with members of differing political parties, election officials need to exercise best efforts to ensure that vote center has poll workers with no party affiliation or from differing unrecognized parties. Those parties could include the Green Party, for example.

That means it's legally possible for a vote center to operate with no Democrats or no Republicans. For instance, a vote center might have some poll workers who are Democrats, several who are not registered to a party and some who are Libertarians or members of unrecognized third parties.

The lawsuit states that 11 vote centers in Maricopa County operated without Republican poll workers during the primary election cycle.

"While it is critically important to understand how these disparities resulted in the primary election, it is equally (if not more) important to ensure that poll worker and central board staffing for the general election comply with the letter of the law and be beyond reproach," Republican National Committee attorney Eric Spencer wrote in a Sept. 9 letter to Maricopa County officials.

Public records war

Through Spencer's letter, the Republican National Committee began seeking information from the county Sept. 9 about the hiring criteria for temporary election staff and efforts to find Republican workers.

But confusion over the way the Spencer did so led to a delay. Thomas Liddy, civil division chief at the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, wrote in a letter included as an exhibit in the lawsuit that the county did not interpret the letter as a public records request.

He notes that letter "nowhere referenced the public records law nor stated it was making a public records request."

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The county instead began to process the records request when it received a subsequent letter on Sept. 29, according to Liddy. It is now working to provide the Republican National Committee with responsive records.

"The personnel best able to identify and locate the records you have requested are the same Elections Department employees who are responsible to administer the November 8, 2022 general election," Liddy wrote. "They will necessarily have to prioritize their responsibilities to the people of Maricopa County to conduct the election, which means that they are unlikely to be able to fulfill your public records request within your 96 hour deadline."

Without the requested public records, the lawsuit alleges that Republicans cannot "effectively monitor or verify that critical election positions are being organized and filled in a manner that is compliant with governing law and that is fair and equitable."

The Republican National Committee has yet to receive any records from the county, the lawsuit states, except for an email from Elections Director Scott Jarrett responding to concerns from the Maricopa County Republican Committee about poll worker composition during the August election.

"While Mr. Jarrett’s narrative representations are appreciated, they are not substitutes for ‘the prompt and actual production of documents' that the Public Records Act requires," Republican National Committee attorney Kory Langhofer wrote in the Sept. 29 letter.

In the email, Jarrett says county recruiters "contacted every one of the individuals" submitted by the party to serve as temporary election staff and hired more than 60 people from the lists to work the election.

"The remaining individuals from your lists did not contact us back, were unavailable to work or quit after we hired them," Jarrett wrote.

He said there are "many times" when election workers quit right before the election and that election recruitment "requires a continuous effort of soliciting potential applicants, hiring, onboarding, training, and backfilling these positions and then starting the cycle again," which is why state law provides "wiggle room."

Sasha Hupka covers Maricopa County and regional issues for The Arizona Republic with a focus on voting and democracy. Do you have a tip? Reach her at sasha.hupka@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter: @SashaHupka.