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| The November 2020 general election was the event that led me on a long
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| tortuous path of discovery. Ultimately, I concluded there is governance
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| problem within the Arizona Counties.
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| Like a lot of people nationwide, I watched in amazement as Maricopa
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| County took weeks to count the ballots following the election. Then
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| there was the audit count, canvasing, allegations, and lawsuits. When
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| was it going to end?
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| Regardless of your political beliefs, most people could agree that
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| Maricopa County’s Election Performance was anomalous, even if you
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| thought the outcome was fair or unfair. Most people focused on the
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| election outcome as a measure of fairness.
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| Some people might consider me strange; I was more interested in the
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| anomalies than the outcome. I keep pondering about what the county was
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| going to do with those anomalies? Or, were they simply going to ignore
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| them.
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| My interest in those election anomalies was influenced by my career. I
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| had retired before the 2020 general election. I worked for a large
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| company, which operated in the financial sector. My last position
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| involved Corrective Action Plans (CAP). In my role, CAP was a process
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| used to investigate financial anomalies to ensure that my company wasn’t
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| sued by a client or fined by a regulator.
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| CAP became a regulatory requirement following the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of
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| 2002 (SOX). The bill was enacted because of accounting scandals in major
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| publicly traded companies, including Enron, Tyco International,
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| Adelphia, Peregrine Systems, and WorldCom. These scandals cost investors
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| billions of dollars when the share prices of affected companies
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| collapsed. Lawmakers intervened to restore public confidence in the
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| stock markets.
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| The SOX Act sought to ensure investors could make appropriate trading
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| decisions by improving financial reporting accuracy, establishing strict
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| internal controls, and holding corporate executives personally
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| accountable. It focused heavily on executive responsibility, auditor
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| independence, and criminal penalties to prevent fraudulent practices.
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| Initially, my company did not embrace CAP when the process was rolled
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| out. For many employees, it seemed like an unnecessary burden. It was
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| just more documentation to do what they would have done anyway. The
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| culture failed to immediately recognize that this roll out was a federal
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| obligation, Under the law, a formal means to document deviations from
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| standards was necessary so the problem could be evaluated for
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| compliance, investigated for cause and corrective action plans
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| established to resolve the problem. CAP became the term used to describe
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| how problems were identified and resolved.
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| Federal regulators identified poor CAP implementation problem. A fine
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| ensued, which was followed by an awakening. Federal regulators were
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| using CAP as an oversight tool to ensure financial fraud would not
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| recur. Soon thereafter, CAP was relied upon to consistently resolve
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| issues that warranted attention; CAP became a way of doing business and
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| was no longer considered an obstacle.
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| I saw CAP transform a culture from “let’s just get this done” to “let’s
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| do this the right way.”
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| I began to see problems differently; they became CAP opportunities. What
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| can we learn from this problem to improve performance.
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| Though retired, I dwelled on these election anomalies. I wanted to
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| understand what happened.
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| === Timeline ===
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| # [[Preface]] — Author's introduction
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| # [[2020: The Event]] — The November 2020 general election anomalies
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| # [[2001: The Journey Begins]] — Starting to ask questions about lessons learned
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| # [[November 2024: Midterm Election]] — The Katie Hobbs situation
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| # [[December 2024: Gaining Support]] — Resolution submission
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| # [[April 15, 2025: Public Records Request]] — Public Records Request process
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| # [[May 15, 2025: Let’s Play Hot Potato]] — Public Records Request runaround
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| # [[August 3, 2026: Submitted Complaint]] — Formal complaint submission__FORCETOC__
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| === Notable Governance Observations ===
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| I had not directly engaged with Maricopa County at this point. However, the Green Book's Principle 15 - Communicate Externally, which was relevant to this initial situation and the only governance gap assessed.
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| === Potential Governance Gap(s) ===
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| * Principle 1 - Demonstrate Commitment to Integrity and Ethical Values
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| ** Attribute(s):
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| * Principle 2 - Exercise Oversight Responsibility
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| ** Attribute(s):
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| * Principle 3 - Establish Structure, Responsibility, and Authority
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| ** Attribute(s):
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| * Principle 4 - Demonstrate Commitment to Competence
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| ** Attribute(s):
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| * Principle 5 - Enforce Accountability
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| ** Attribute(s):
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| * Principle 6 - Define Objectives and Risk Tolerances
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| ** Attribute(s):
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| * Principle 7 - Identify, Analyze, and Respond to Risks
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| ** Attribute(s):
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| * Principle 8 - Assess Fraud, Improper Payment, and Information
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| ** Attribute(s):
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| * Principle 9 - Identify, Analyze, and Respond to Change
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| ** Attribute(s):
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| * Principle 10 - Design Control Activities
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| ** Attribute(s):
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| * Principle 11 - Design General Control Activities over Information
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| ** Attribute(s):
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| * Principle 12 - Implement Control Activities
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| ** Attribute(s):
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| * Principle 13 - Use Quality Information
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| ** Attribute(s):
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| * Principle 14 - Communicate Internally
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| ** Attribute(s):
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| * Principle 15 - Communicate Externally
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| ** Attribute(s): 15.01, [[15.02]]
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| * Principle 16 - Perform Monitoring Activities
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| ** Attribute(s):
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| * Principle 17 - Evaluate Issues and Remediate Deficiencies
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| ** Attribute(s):
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Delete this page or redirect from here to 2020: General Election Anomalies
