1.10

Control Environment

Principle 1: Demonstrate Commitment to Integrity and Ethical Values

Attribute 1.10: Management determines tolerance levels for deviations from standards of conduct. For instance, management may determine that the entity will have zero tolerance for deviations from certain expected standards of conduct, while deviations from others may be addressed with warnings to personnel. Management establishes a process for evaluations of individual and team adherence to standards of conduct that escalates and remediates deviations timely and consistently. Management, with oversight from the entity's oversight body and with consideration of applicable laws and regulations, takes appropriate actions to remediate deviations.

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Jamie's Story

November 2022: Mid-term Election

From Attribute 1.07: Maricopa County management, with Katie Hobbs' oversight, were responsible when numerous election anomalies occurred during the 2020 General Election. Governance issues were identified in this assessment under "Election Anomalies" which used the Arizona Attorney General's Office 2020 General Election Investigation as objective information to identify governance issues. Katie Hobbs was accused of being unethical in her decision to not recuse herself from her Election Oversight responsibilities during the 2022 Mid-term election. Similarly, Maricopa county employees displayed unethical behavior by violating election procedures (See Dropbox Collection - 2020). Like Katie Hobbs, MC election personnel were not violating any laws, they were just violating the Election Procedures Manuals, Interestingly, Katie Hobb's was responsible for those procedurs as the Arizona Secretary of State in 2020.

Relevant to this Attribute, 1.10, there is no eveidence was found to demonstrate Katie Hobbs had taken timely actions to remediate deviations during the 2020 General Election. Ethical issues are demonstrated in the 2020 General Election and 2022 Mid-term election.

Election Anomalies

Dropbox Collection (2020)

The following statement is made in the AZ AG's Office 2020 General Election inverstigation.

"After October 21, 2020, the number of ballots received became too large to utilize the ballot counter and the decision was made to weigh the trays containing approximately 200 ballots each." This appears to be a significant change from the established process. The decision changed the method of counting ballots from counting each ballot to estimating the number of ballots based on the weight of the box.

Potential Governance Gap:

Contrary to the Green Book, it's unclear whether it was a frontline or management, but a "decision was made" to deviate from using the ballot counter as part of what appears to be an established process. This appears to be an ethical concern in that willful deviations from the process can be implemented on the fly. The deviation from the established process was significant, changing from an actual count to an estimate by weight.

Maricopa County Directs the Use of Sharpie Pens

This Green Book Attribute, 1.10 seeks to establish a process for evaluations of individual and team adherence to standards of conduct that escalates and remediates deviations timely and consistently. In this case, management is directing personnel to distribute Sharpie Markers on Election Day instead of ballpoint pens, knowing there are issues with the Sharpies. 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.