1.08

Control Environment

Principle 1: Demonstrate Commitment to Integrity and Ethical Values

Attribute 1.08: Management establishes processes to evaluate performance against the entity's expected standards of conduct and address any deviations in a timely manner.

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Jamie's Story

June 8, 2026: Arizona State Ombudsman Replies

By establishing job positions with Ombudsman in the job title, members of the public would believe these positions have the independence necessary evaluate actual performance to a standard. Maricopa County's Ombudsman are ethically deficient to Arizona State Ombudsman. Maricopa County has job positions with Ombudsman in the title. However, Maricopa County Ombudsmen 1) are not trained as Ombudsman, 2) are not operating within an internationally recognized process for Ombudsman, and do not have their independence legally established by statute or county ordinance. Senior leadership apparently condones the practice of using a dictionary definition of Ombudsman as the criterion for using Ombudsman in a Job Title. A model program is available at the State level, which is being ignored. Effective oversight by Ombudsmen cannot occur when they do not have the legally defined independence from the line organization.

Election Anomalies

Arizona Senate allegations arose from a failure to recognize the Arizona Senates Oversight Role. These allegations were investigated and reported on by the Arizona Attorney General's Office 2020 General Election Investigation.After more than a year since the 2020 General Election, MC leadership had not compiled the information necessary to resolve numerous allegations.

• Allegation #1 Signature Verification
• Allegation #2, Maricopa Dropbox Collection (2020)
  • MC was unaware of the procedure violations for 14 months. The AZ AG's inspector identified the procedure violations.
  • There was no mention of consequences for procedure violation.
• Allegation #3, Maricopa Election Management Server (2020)

MC leadership and employees lacked transparency. The AZ AG's inspector was not supplied with enough information to resolve the following allegations and closed the report with an Undetermined status.:

• MC EMS 2020 - Election Management System Database Purged
• MC EMS 2020 - Election Files Deleted
• MC EMS 2020 - Corrupt Ballot Images
• MC EMS 2020 - Missing Ballot Images
• MC EMS 2020 - Anonymous Logins
• MC EMS 2020 - Dual Boot System Discovered
• MC EMS 2020 - Operating System Logs Not Preserved

• Allegation #4, Maricopa County Withholding Audit Data (2020)
  • The MCBOS delayed the release of information and equipment for nine months, while the Arizona Senate's request was litigated.
• Allegation #5, Pima County Embedded 35,000 Votes (2020)
• Allegation #6, Unknown Published Election Fraud Flyer (2020)

Maricopa County Directs the Use of Sharpie Pens

There is an interesting twist with respect to what occurred and the standard attribute 1.08 seeks. There appears to be some success in reporting of issues, given that poll workers and MC leadership were aware of issues caused by use of the Sharpie Marker, which could have been put to good use. However, the issues were disregarded. Workers were told to 1) immediately stop using Sharpie Markers, 2) use ballpoint pens temporarily between October 22nd and November 2nd, and then 3) use Sharpie Markers on Election Day. Action #1 would have been an example of good governance. However, actions #2 and #3 were poor governance. The following unethical practices were revealed by this Maricopa County email:

• Maricopa County Leader directed the use of Sharpie Markers on Election Day contrary to their acknowledgement of issues arising from the use of Sharpie Markers, which had occurred prior to October 22, 2020. Maricopa County Leader asked personnel to stop using Sharpie Markers and use Ballpoint Pens until the Election Day in an apparent attempt to prevent premature escalation of the issue until after the election.
• Inspectors were the target audience of this email message. The inspectors were informed of issues and concerns with Sharpie Markers. Yet, the email asked inspectors to intentionally distribute Sharpie Pens on Election Day after issues and concerns with the use of Sharpie Pens had been identified. The very people (i.e., inspectors) that should have been ensuring secure elections apparently complied with the request to distributed Sharpie Marker to voters on Election Day, even though there were know issues with Sharpie Markers. The Maricopa County Leader seeks to ensure everyone is passing out Sharpie Markers contrary to the ballot instructions. Everyone is alerted to issues and concerns with the Sharpie Markers, but apparently no one questioned their extensive use on Election Day. This email message was delivered by the Elections Department Assistant Director for Recruitment and Training. In this case, numerous temporary workers are hired for a short period of time, for the single purpose of supporting an election. The Assistant Director for Recruitment and Training would have been more influential to newly hired temporary workers. It seems odd that a staff management position (i.e., Training) would be communicating a line management decision, or what should be a line management decision.
• An investigation into 2022 Mid-term election anomalies confirmed that Sharpie Markers bled through some ballots, which would be consistent with the reports of "issues and concerns" identified with the use of Sharpie Markers before October 22, 2020.
• As Maricopa County tells the story, they were concerned about long lines at voting centers. Their story goes on to attribute ballot tabulator fouling as the cause of long lines; delays and long lines occurred when voting stopped to clean the tabulators. They attributed fouling of the ballot tabulator to the wet ink from ballpoint pens being transferred to the tabulator. Their solution was to distribute Sharpie Markers at the Voting Centers to the voters; Sharpie ink apparently dries faster than ballpoint pen ink. The problem with their story is that it sounds more like an excuse than a plan. If any part of their story had been documented, which showed a thoughtful investigation, then most of the public's suspicions of foul play even would have been resolved, even if the corrective action to use Sharpie Markers was wrong.