The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office refused to represent Stephen Richer in “friendly litigation” with Fontes over the ballot eligibility of voters impacted by a motor vehicle division coding error, a railbird said. Richer said it took some time for the county attorney’s office to assign outside counsel. Both the county attorney’s office and Richer declined to comment on whether there was a conflict of interest preventing the county attorney from taking the case or why the county attorney’s office ultimately deferred the case to outside counsel. “We asked them to assign us outside counsel. They eventually assigned us outside counsel,” Richer said in a text. The recorder’s office asked for the county attorney to find alternative counsel on Wednesday, Sept. 11, but the recorder’s office did not secure counsel until 2 p.m. Monday. The recorder, represented by Snell and Wilmer, filed its special action with the court at 1 p.m. Tuesday. “Long night for Stephen and Snell,” Richer said. The railbird noted the county attorney’s delay in finding substitute counsel was “unusual.” Fontes’ case is being handled by outside counsel, too, but due to a potential conflict of interest as the AG’s office, represents both the Secretary of State and the Arizona Department of Transportation. Attorney Craig Morgan is set to argue for Fontes.
After a primary upset in which incumbent Bennett was ousted by his challenger, he said his primary signifies a “Civil War going on within the Republican Party,” but noted that he hopes to continue his career in politics. Reflecting on the 2024 legislative session, Bennett said he was targeted for being a Republican that chose to vote on the merits of a bill. “We counted up the Republican sponsored bills in the Senate, there were over 550 and I voted wrong, in their opinion, on five or six of them, it wasn’t many,” Bennett said. “If I think we’re violating the Constitution, or if I think we’re doing something that hasn’t been well thought through, I’m going to vote on the merits — or lack thereof — of a bill.” He said it is important that Republicans can criticize those within their own party “because everyone can make a mistake and get a little bit off-kilter, and making sure that we do things that are constitutional has to apply to ourselves as well as the other party.” The LD1 primary — and the ad attacks that were run against him — signified an inability to look for small compromises, he said. “They’ll take five or six votes, twist them or exaggerate them into complete lies, and spend half a million dollars lying about you,” Bennett said. “If I have to tear someone else down to sit in this chair, I’m not interested.” For now, Bennett said his future plans include spending time with his grandchildren and wife. “I don’t think my public service career is over, but I have nothing planned, as far as specifically running for office,” Bennett said. “My good friend Andy Tobin ran the Department of Administration for five or six years for (Doug) Ducey. I wouldn’t mind that. I like the lady that’s over there now, but she can’t get through Jake Hoffman’s committee. If I went for it, that would be an interesting hearing, though.”
The legislature agrees with Fontes that fully registered voters who may not have provided proof of citizenship should initially be given full ballots – not federal only ballots – in the 2024 election. The legislative leaders clarified they “agree unreservedly” that the affected voters should have to provide proof of citizenship in order to avoid registering as federal-only voters, but they should be made to do so after the 2024 election. Petersen and Toma filed a motion to intervene in support of Fontes in the special action over voter ballot eligibility and urged the state high court to ultimately allow the 98,000 or so voters who saw their registration status thrown in limbo by the MVD glitch granted full ballots in the 2024 election. ce, writes that voters were “affirmatively induced by elections officials to believe that they had properly and fully registered to vote, and in many cases have routinely obtained and cast full ballots without incident year after year, in election after election.” He continued, “Ambushing these voters with the revelation—just weeks before the election and possibly after some of them had already requested an early ballot—that they are not, in fact, eligible to vote in Arizona elections after all is dissonant with any recognizable conception of that term.” Basile noted any curing period would coincide with early voting and “spawn multiple possible permutations of curing timelines and balloting options,” leading to voter confusion and administrative burden. “Any reasonable notice and cure period inevitably would overlap with the statutory early voting window, hence engendering the logistically formidable problem of determining which affected voters can obtain which ballot style and when,” Basile wrote. He noted, too, Richer’s proposal would tread on due process, given the government’s ultimate fault in the error. In sum, the legislature noted a check on the impacted voters’ DPOC should be implemented “immediately after the Nov. 5 election. “But any remedy that alters the registration status of these individuals prior to the election is neither mandated by Arizona statutes nor comports with precepts of fairness, consistency, and due process,” Basile wrote. The legislature’s motion to intervene comes without opposition from Richer. Fontes’ response brief, as well as any amicus briefs were due by 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Republicans on JLAC voted 4-6 against a special audit into the Dept. of Education’s federal funding allocations and school improvement funding Wednesday morning, denying a request from Hobbs and legislative Democrats to further examine ADE. Horne presented to JLAC members and said his department was not able to spend the $24 million in federal grant funds meant for struggling schools because the previous ADE Superintendent, Kathy Hoffman, a Democrat, missed the deadline to allocate those funds. An additional $5 million was allocated, but Horne said schools didn’t spend the money despite reminders from his office telling districts to spend it. Democrats asked Horne why his office didn’t request a waiver from the federal government sooner after staff realized the federal funds wouldn’t be available, and Horne said the waiver was made available after the federal government notified 15 states, including Arizona, that they could recoup the funds. “Normally within reasonable time, it goes to the treasury and then you can’t get at it,” Horne said. “They found they had the money. They sent notices to the 15 states and we responded within less than three business days with our application.” The waiver request has not been approved yet, but Horne said he will get the funds to schools as soon as he can once the money is transferred to the state. Democrats on the committee are not satisfied with Horne’s explanation. There was some disagreements between Horne and Democrats on the committee over the timeline of when ADE could allocate federal funding, and Horne said Democrats were confusing Title I funding, which the $24 million allocation expired on July 1, 2022, with school improvement funds, which he said his department hasn’t had any issues allocating. “It’s not that hard,” Horne told Gutieriez after she said an audit was needed because of the confusion around the allocation of funds. In a news release after the hearing, Gutierrez said Horne confused the issue and passed blame onto ADE employees. “The idea that we’re just letting the department come up, explain themselves, and then let them tell us that they fixed it. That is ridiculous. Why even have JLAC,” Mendez said. “I’ve seen you guys (Republicans) pull out special audits and other audits for asinine reasons. Gress said ADE already undergoes regular audits along with every other executive agency, and the issue would be examined by auditors then. “This is nothing more than political theater,” Kern said. “It’s not about the children. It’s about who controls the ADE and had this been the prior administration, then it wouldn’t even be an issue.”
DECATUR — Once again, all eyes are on Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
On Tuesday, the engineer-turned-election czar held a whirlwind day of meet-the-press talks, featuring CBS Evening News, a television crew from Sweden and the regular homegrown press corps that continuously chronicle his every move.
The daylong event also was a chance for state officials to talk about how elections work, how ballots are cast and how votes are tabulated. They also addressed ongoing election-related conspiracy theories and efforts to increase public trust in the election process.
Raffensperger, who appeared Tuesday night in the HBO documentary “Stopping the Steal,” also made an appearance at a DeKalb County election site to see how voting machines performed during a test-run.
Raffensperger, 69, unwittingly became a central figure in the 2020 election after Donald Trump placed a phone call to him shortly after the polls closed to get him to “find” 11,799 votes –– the number Trump needed to win Georgia and return to the White House.
Raffensperger, a Republican who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020, rebuffed the president’s request. President Joe Biden narrowly won Georgia with 49.47% of the vote, over Trump’s 49.24% — a margin of 0.23%, or 11,799 votes.
Raffensperger now faces a new set of challenges — namely, a State Election Board that is making last-minute rule changes and additions that critics claim could enable local election offices to delay certifying votes if they suspect fraud or irregularities.
The board, which has drawn national attention, is slated to meet Friday to consider more new rules.
Here’s what Raffensperger had to say on some key issues facing Georgia as it heads into the Nov. 5 general election. Comments have been edited for length and clarity.
What Georgia voters should know going into the election
“We want everyone to understand that those ballot machines are going to work for you. Those scanners, those vote counters, they’re accurate. So the only thing that you can really complain about is you didn’t work hard enough to knock on enough doors, make enough calls or send enough money. At the end of the day, we’re in a free, fair and accurate election.”
“We’ve been working hard with law enforcement folks, federal sources, and other resources. We’ve had support statewide. But also we understand you prepare. When we’ve done these security table tops, we’ve actually done some role-playing and kind of gaming it out — ‘What would you do about this?’ — so we can prepare our election officials for this, too. That’s why we have lanyards, they can press a button [for help]. That’s why we have a texting tool — see something, say something. We want to make sure that it is a safe environment.”
Voter turnout prediction
“We’ve told the counties to expect [voter turnout] to be north of 5 million. We had 5 million [voters] in the middle of the pandemic in 2020. In 2022, people went back to the historical way [of voting] — 60% were early voting, 30% were voting on Election Day. And there’s no reason to think that 2024 will be any different.
Certifying election results
Every county shall get certified by the Monday after the election. So whatever they want to do, if they want to come in on Friday or Saturday or Sunday [to get the certification done] … but by the end of day Monday they shall, by state law, be certified.
Enforcing the law if counties refuse to comply
There’ll be other people that will probably be jumping on that, particularly the candidates, to protect their interest. At the end of the day, we expect people to do what is right.
On whether the State Election Board has overstepped its authority
Already it’s less than 90 days before the election and they’re making these last-minute changes, with more to come on Friday. I think that really just flies in the face of good sound election practice. Everything we’ve worked on [to ensure] free, fair and fast elections, and some of the things they’re doing is flying in the face of what we’ve been working with the General Assembly on since 2019.
We have confidence that at the end of the day, whatever rules are passed will have to meet state law. The State Election Board does not have any authority to exceed what is in the state law or the state constitution. And so we’re very mindful of that. If they’re actually stepping over that line, it’s just not going to be the scrutiny of the court. We’re being sued by people on the left side and the right side right now. That doesn’t happen too often. I get sued depending on what cycle it is. At the end of the day, we won all those cases because we were following the law and following the constitution.
How he views his job right now
My job is to do my job, and our job is to have the counties do their job. The best way to let them do their job is to know what the rules are so they can train, retrain and train again, and go through it every day that they can possibly do that. Many counties are working with poll workers to get them trained as much as they can. Lines need to be short. We want to make sure that we actually get those results to you quickly.
What keeps him up at night
The list is long. First, we want to make sure it’s a physically safe environment. So we prepare poll workers.They have a texting tool [that allows them to] ‘see something, say something.’ We also want the process to move through quickly for [voter] check-in. Then we want to make sure that through the back office — cyber and then artificial intelligence — is that a deep fake? Did they really say that? No, they didn’t. Meanwhile, [the misinformation has] traveled all around the state 10 times. So there’s all these different things, but that’s why we just continue to put our head down and do our job.
His message to voters ahead of Election Day
Make a plan. How do you want to vote? If you want to vote absentee, you should already have your absentee ballot request in. Make sure you’re getting it in soon, because the postal service has a lot of issues. The Postmaster General said he’s working on this. I respect that, but I don’t know if he can turn that ship around that quickly. So [if] you receive your ballot, get it back quickly. If you’re driving by the county election offices on your way to work or on your way home, drop it off. They have drop off boxes. All 159 counties [have] one [drop-off box] for [every] 100,000 voters. If you’re going to vote early, you’ve got 17 days. You’ve got a lot of choices. We have two Saturdays [to vote early]. Make your plan then go vote.
Lawmakers on Wednesday signaled they will propose alterations to the state’s child fatality data reporting.
“I’d like to come back in the next month with a recommendation,” Rep. Dale DeVon, R-Granger, chair of the Interim Study Committee on Child Services, said. “We’ve heard enough to say that we can come together to try to create some modifications and changes.”
Braelynn Yerington, founder of the advocacy group Champions for Children, urged the committee to make recommendations addressing what she said were three reporting deficiencies. She contended the state’s data is lagging, lacks near-fatality data and does not include “screen-outs” from hotlines.
Yerington argued the state can’t react quickly enough to trends when data reporting is too far behind. State officials with the Department of Child Services and the Department of Health presented child fatality data through calendar year 2022 to the committee Wednesday.
The Department of Child Services investigated 308 child deaths in 2022, and the department determined 61 of those fatalities were caused by caregiver abuse and neglect. Yerington said five of the 17 abuse-related fatalities had open Department of Child Services involvement.
“In all of those situations, the child was not removed from the home,” Yerington said. “I wish we would have had that [data] earlier.”
Yerington said the Department of Child Services’ annual child fatality report should include near-fatality data with the same detail as its fatality data. She also wants to see data for screened-out calls related to victims of abuse and neglect included in the state’s reporting.
Yerington said her daughter suffered abuse before being adopted, and her daughter’s hotline calls were screened out.
“If we had a better system in place, she may not have been subjected to all that she was,” Yerington said.
Yerington gave lawmakers on the committee a handout with information regarding Arizona’s child fatality reporting. She said Arizona provides near-daily reporting updates on its child fatalities.
The committee did not indicate whether it would address Yerington’s specific concerns through corresponding recommendations.
According to the Department of Child Services, a majority — about two-thirds — of the 61 children who it found died because of abuse or neglect in 2022 were aged 3 or younger, mirroring a national trend. Most of the perpetrators were biological parents, with men responsible for more abuse fatalities and women accounting for more neglect fatalities, officials said. Of the 61 deaths, 31 were determined by a coroner to be an accident, and 17 were dubbed homicides.
From 2007 to 2022, 4,422 Indiana children have died from injuries, the No. 1 cause of death among children in the state, according to the Indiana Department of Health, which conducts child fatality reviews. The reviews are a prevention process and are not meant to provide real-time assessments, the department said.
“We need to be proactive instead of reactive to protect our children,” Rep. Vanessa Summers, D-Indianapolis, said in a statement. “If we want to reduce the number of child deaths in our state, we must invest in combating risk factors that heighten the risk of abuse, such as low-familiar income, mental health and substance abuse. Our state has continually failed to do so, and the cost is our children’s lives.”
Hoosiers can report suspected child abuse or neglect by calling the 1-800-800-5556 hotline.
Gov. Eric Holcomb named Porter County Circuit Court Judge Mary DeBoer as his sixth appointment to the Indiana Court of Appeals, with one more choice coming up.
Holcomb announced his pick of DeBoer on Wednesday to replace retired Judge Patricia Riley on the 15-member court.
DeBoer, 57, has been a county judge since 2020 after serving as a magistrate judge for courts in Porter and Starke counties and a deputy prosecutor in those counties.
DeBoer acknowledged the appeals court turnover that will result since Holcomb appointed nearly half of the court’s judges during his eight years in office.
The seventh appointment is expected to come this fall to replace Judge Terry Crone, who will retire Nov. 5.
“The seven of us bring fresh eyes and a burst of energy to the floor, which dovetails well with the institutional knowledge and experience of our more seasoned judges,” DeBoer said. “This combination allows us to do good work and accomplish great things.”
DeBoer choked up briefly during the announcement event with Holcomb as she thanked her family and recalled her stepson Daane DeBoer, a Marine who was killed during a 2010 deployment to Afghanistan.
“As I walked into each of my interviews, I felt him there with me, and I heard him say, ‘You got this, Mary,’” she said.
Holcomb pointed to DeBoer’s work with three problem-solving courts in Porter County: the Juvenile and Family Drug Court, the Truancy Court and the Transformation Court, which focuses on mental health issues.
Holcomb credited DeBoer’s “passion for the struggles that our youth are facing and how they get off that track and onto a better pathway.”
DeBoer said she hoped to continue working on school truancy issues as a Court of Appeals judge.
“It’s so important to get them back into school and to have them not out being delinquent and using illicit substances,” she said. “I think that’s important to just give people options, and you don’t get as many options if you’re not going to school and getting your diplomas.”
DeBoer grew up in Michigan and moved to Indiana in 1990 when she began studying at Valparaiso University’s law school.
Holcomb appointed DeBoer as a Porter County judge in late 2019 to fill a vacancy, and she won election as a Republican candidate to a full six-year term in 2020 with 56% of the vote.
DeBoer’s appointment and the upcoming vacancy mean Republican governors will have named 11 of the 15 appeals court judges and all five state Supreme Court justices.
The appeals court hasn’t yet set a date for her swearing-in and robing ceremony.
Asked about her judicial philosophy, DeBoer said, “I’m definitely read it [the law], look at the text, don’t read anything into it. We’ve got enough to do without trying to create law. That’s not our role.”
Judges Scheele and Steele, who were the other appeals court finalists with DeBoer, are among seven people being considered by the judicial commission for the court’s upcoming vacancy by meeting the Sept. 12 application deadline, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathryn Dolan told State Affairs.
The commission is expected to meet in October to interview the applicants and select three finalists for Holcomb’s consideration to replace Crone, Dolan said.
Update: This story has been updated with information on applicants to the upcoming Court of Appeals vacancy.
Tom Davies is a Statehouse reporter for State Affairs Pro Indiana. Reach him at[email protected] or on X at @TomDaviesIND.
The Build Kansas Advisory Committee approved seven more projects Wednesday despite concerns from some lawmakers.
The newly approved projects bring the total of approvals to 65. Of the previous 58, 12 received federal funding while eight saw their grant applications rejected, and the remaining 38 are awaiting a decision, Kansas Infrastructure Hub Executive Director Matthew Volz said.
“The current administration wants to hang on to these award announcements because they want to have good news coming out of Washington, D.C.,” Volz told the committee. He expects more awards to be announced in October ahead of the November general election.
The Kansas Infrastructure Hub manages the Build Kansas Fund, which aims to help the state take advantage of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Kansas fund expires June 30, 2027, or sooner if all available funds are awarded by that date.
The $23 million in awards for the 12 successful applicants have garnered a little less than $32 million in federal funds, Volz said, a 137% return on the state’s $23 million investment so far.
A few lawmakers expressed concerns about the types of projects that have passed through their committee so far.
Rep. Troy Waymaster, R-Bunker, said he hoped the fund would help small communities improve their infrastructure. But instead, money has gone to projects such as studies and bike paths, which the committee chair said are “not true infrastructure needs.”
“The kind of money that we’re spending for studies is unbelievable,” Sen. Rick Billinger, R-Goodland, said.
But Rep. Shannon Francis, R-Liberal, said funding for railroad projects — such as one the committee approved Wednesday in his district — are important because preliminary engineering work is “incredibly expensive.”
Studies “are always the barrier” for communities to complete a big project, said Sen. Usha Reddi, D-Manhattan.
“Just because we don’t find it important doesn’t mean it’s not important to that particular community,” she said.
Railroad Crossing Elimination Grants
City of Spring Hill, working with Fort Scott: Requesting $107,500; committing $107,500; additional contribution $215,000; applying for $1.7 million in federal funds
City of Liberal: Requesting $305,000; committing about $105,000; applying for $1.6 million in federal funds
Dodge City: Requesting $154,000; committing $100,000, additional contribution $100,000; applying for $1.4 million in federal funds
Safe Streets and Roads for All Grants
City of Spring Hill: Requesting about $434,000; committing a little less than $23,000; applying for $1.8 million in federal funds
City of Ogden: Requesting $22,500; committing $7,500; applying for $120,000 in federal funds
Osage County: Exempt from matching requirements; requesting about $525,000; applying for $2.1 million in federal funds
Reconnecting Communities Pilot Grants
City of Osawatomie: Requesting $85,500; committing $4,500; applying for $360,000 in federal funds
A legislative subcommittee on Tuesday said it plans to again send letters telling numerous local units of government to improve their financial record-keeping.
The Legislative Council Audit and Financial Reporting Subcommittee resolved to continue the practice after officials said letters sent last year to noncompliant entities had a positive impact.
Last year, State Board of Accounts officials presented a report to lawmakers showing 88 local entities had either not adopted a corrective action plan to remedy repeat instances of noncompliance in their financial reporting or not made necessary fixes over three audit cycles. Those units include city, town, county and township governments and school districts.
And although the letters haven’t eliminated all noncompliance issues, “we did see a lot of those entities who had either not adopted a [corrective action] plan adopt one or who had not fixed their problems fix one,” said Kendra Leatherman, general counsel and legislative director for the Indiana State Board of Accounts. (More entities — 155 total — will receive letters this year than last year because of the timing of audit cycles, Leatherman told State Affairs after the meeting.)
Of the common trends resulting in noncompliance and the need for a corrective action plan, the most “problematic” were instances of insufficient supporting documentation, overdrawn cash balances, bank account reconciliation errors and improper recordings of financial transactions, Leatherman said.
The subcommittee unanimously voted to send letters again. The Indiana Legislative Services Agency will draft the letters, and, once the subcommittee signs off, they will be sent to the entities, officials said.
Increasing audit workload
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and a corresponding influx of federal dollars, the State Board of Accounts has seen an uptick in auditing work, Leatherman said.
The agency’s audit work has increased about 30% compared to a typical year, and “it doesn’t seem to be going down anytime soon,” she said.
“To continue to meet this need, we will have to choose to increase agency staffing or continue to partner with CPA firms to complete the required audit work on time,” State Examiner Paul Joyce wrote in an Aug. 16 letter to Joe Habig, the acting state budget director.
Rep. Matt Lehman, R-Berne, said the state has been “picking up the difference” of the agency’s increased auditing work.
“That money does have to come from somewhere, whether it be the local government or from the state,” Joyce said during the meeting. “But you do want to … isolate the good players from the bad players and let the bad players pay their fair share.”
The subcommittee did not take action on the matter Tuesday.
Entry-level CPA pay
Leatherman and Joyce also asked the subcommittee to support its request to make the State Board of Accounts’ pay for entry-level certified public accountants, or CPAs, more competitive.
Noting an “overall decrease in the number of individuals who are entering the accounting field,” Joyce stressed in the August letter the importance of raising entry-level CPA pay to compete with other employers, especially private accounting firms.
Leatherman asked for the starting salaries to be tied to “some kind of external factor,” such as the Consumer Price Index, to ensure they remain competitive.
“In the times of inflationary periods, you can’t stay stagnant,” Joyce said. “If we stay stagnant — I mean, I have 80 CPAs that work for me — they are going to find a job somewhere else.”
Joyce said the more CPAs the agency can hire, the more work it can do and charge for, meaning the agency can absorb the increased starting pay scales within its budget next year. Because of its model, the agency could take “interim steps,” such as seeking approval from the State Budget Agency to hire new CPAs above the agency’s minimum salary level, said Cris Johnston, director of the Indiana Office of Management and Budget. But Johnston said any changes to the agency’s pay plan would have to go before the State Budget Committee.
The subcommittee approved a motion allowing the State Board of Accounts to work with the State Budget Agency to propose, in Lehman’s words, “what needs to be done so that we don’t … fall below an ability to hire good people to meet the needs we have to do independent audits.”
The state hit a milestone this week as a record 2 million Kansas residents are now registered to vote.
Secretary of State Scott Schwab announced the record Tuesday. That means more than two-thirds of all Kansans are registered to vote; according to the latest population data, Kansas has more than 2.9 million residents.
“I am pleased to see so many Kansans taking the important step of registering to vote,” Schwab said in a news release.
This year, 83,293 new registered voters have been added to the rolls, Schwab said. He expects that figure to rise before the Oct. 15 registration deadline for the Nov. 5 general election.
Schwab encouraged prospective voters to register online at VoteKansas.gov or check their registration records through Kansas VoterView.
The use of a .gov address ensures security and lets Kansans know they are accessing an official government site rather than a third-party one,” he said.
Supreme Court appoints four to attorney discipline board
The Kansas Supreme Court made one reappointment and three new appointments this week to the Board for Discipline of Attorneys.
The board, made up of attorneys from across Kansas, holds panels to review cases of potential misconduct. The Office of the Disciplinary Administrator, directed by the state’s Supreme Court, presents cases to the disciplinary board, and panels hear cases after a review committee finds probable cause that a lawyer has violated the Kansas Rules of Professional Conduct.
The four appointees will serve until June 30, 2028.
Stacy L. Ortega (reappointment)
D. Shane Bangerter, Dodge City
Katie A. McClaflin, Overland Park
Catherine A. Zigtema, Shawnee
The court also appointed two sitting members to the board’s review committee.
