2020 Maricopa County Directs Use of Sharpie Pens

In your exploration of election-related anomalies, you are here:

• 2020 - List of Election-Related Assessed Anomalies
  • 2020 Maricopa County Directs Use of Sharpie Pens

Governance Gaps are reported on and compared to a standard so that you may visualize how poorly managed County services can have an adverse impact without any criminal wrongdoing. We chose the United States Government Accountability Office's (GAO) Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government (also known as the Green Book) because it represents the ideal standard for governance practices since it is specifically written for government entities, not the business sector. Maricopa County has no obligation or commitments to adhere to any governance-related standards, including the Green Book. Regardless, the Green Book is a representation of what good governance looks like and deviations from that standard are worthy of consideration, not prosecution.

Backgound

While reading Maricopa County 2022 General Election Ballot-on-Demand Printer Investigation, there were mentions of the 2020 "Sharpiegate" incident during the General Elections. The 2022 introduced the Sharpiegate incident with the following:

"During the 2020 general election, however, on some ballots, the ink from the “Sharpie” pens provided at the vote centers bled through the paper."

Elsewhere in the 2022 report, the investigator discredit's the Sharpiegate incident as being unfounded. Alternate independent evaluations of the Sharpiegate incident were sought, given the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors was funding the report that discredited the incident.

Something more interesting than another report was found. Email from Maricopa County leadership directs the use of "Sharpie Markers" on Election day! Why?

The email was obtained from an internet-based news agency but appears authentic. The news article was disregarded as being biased. However, the actual email was raw data from which we could assess Maricopa County governance practices.

The Email

The email was sent by Kelly Dixon, Assistant Director, Recruitment and Training for the Elections Department.

The subject was Pens and Thank! (Not in that order!)

The email was sent on October 22, 2020, twelve days before the General Election on November 3, 2020.

What in this email?

The email begins with Kelly Dixon's thanks to Troubleshooters.

Then the contents get interesting.

Sharpie Pen Isssues known before Election Day

Emphasis (caps) was placed by the author of the email.

"Next, we've heard you and we know you've been hearing issues and concerns about Sharpie Markers. Starting tomorrow, 10/23, and through 11/2, we are asking that Clerks hand voters BALLPOINT PENS rather than markers. We NEED to use Markers on Election Day, but for now and through 11/2, hand voters a Ballpoint Pen. 

Spread the Word

Please message this to your Inspectors and ensure they cascade this change down to everyone on the Board.

Reasonable Interpretations; No Conspiracy Theories

By way of background, Maricopa County ballots had always directed voters to use black or blue ballpoint pens when making their selections on the ballot. The 2020 ballots included these instructions.

Deviation: Contrary to these ballot instructions, voters were given Sharpie Markers by voter center personnel and told to use them when filling in the ballot.

My neighbors attested to being given a Sharpie Marker to fill in the ballot on election day.

People are Starting to Figure this Out!

As of October 22, 2020, the Maricopa County Leadership is alerting people that issues with "Sharpie Markers" has been identified. Stop using Sharpie Markers.

Stop using Sharpie Markers is excellent advice if there are known issues with their use, which is acknowledged in the email.

Unfortunately, Maricopa County Leadership disregard a known issue and decided to insert a known issue at a more opportune time, which is November 3, the Election Day, when in person voting turnout is at its highest.

Deviation: Maricopa County Leadership 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.

Deviation: Maricopa County Leadership 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.

County Leadership assures workers that they have enough ballpoint pens and Sharpie Markers to execute their plan.

Spread this Unethical Plan

The message says "Please message this to your Inspectors and ensure they cascade this change down to everyone on the Board." Interestingly, the target audience is "your Inspectors."

From the online Cambridge dictionary, one of the definitions of inspector is "someone whose job is to officially inspect something, for example, a factory or building, in order to check that everything is correct and legal. [Emphasis added by ACV]

Deviation: Inspectors were the target audience of this email message. The email asked inspectors to intentionally distribute Sharpie Pens on Election Day in the same email that had also acknowledgeed there are issues with the use of Sharpie Pens on ballots prior to October 22, 2020. The very people (i.e., inspectors) that should have been directing compliance with the ballot instructions the use of ball point pens were being told to violate ballot instructions by ensuring poll workers distributed Sharpie Marker to voters on Election Day, even though there were know issues with Sharpie Markers.

Deviation: The email seeks to ensure everyone is passing out Sharpie Markers contrary to the ballot instructions. This may not be illegal, but it appears to be unethical.

Notable Observation: This message was delivered by the Elections Department Assistant Director for Recruitment and Training. Ordinarily, this position would not be considered a line position; Recruitment and Training would be supporting line management. 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, who would have been unlikely to know the line management.

Note: The author of the Maricopa County 2022 General Election Ballot-on-Demand Printer Investigationasserted that the use of Sharpie Markers had no effect on the ballots. Generally speaking, the technical accuracy of the author's testing of printer issues was presented well. IF the author performed Sharpie Testing to confirm their position that Sharpie Markers had no impact on the ballots, then the testing was performed paper stock that was asserted by Maricopa County and/or Runbeck Elections Services. It was doubtful that the specific paper used in the 2020 General Election was preserved for testing, especially if there was malicious intent by Maricopa County and/or Runbeck Election Services. IF testing was performed, it would have been invalidated if a different paper stock were used.

Potential Governance Gap(s):

• Principle 1 - Demonstrate Commitment to Integrity and Ethical Values
  • Attribute(s): 1.01, 1.02, 1.03, 1.04, 1.05, 1.06, 1.07, 1.08
• Principle 2 - Exercise Oversight Responsibility
  • Attribute(s):
• Principle 3 - Establish Structure, Responsibility, and Authority
  • Attribute(s):
• Principle 4 - Demonstrate Commitment to Competence
  • Attribute(s):
• Principle 5 - Enforce Accountability
  • Attribute(s):
• Principle 6 - Define Objectives and Risk Tolerances
  • Attribute(s):
• Principle 7 - Identify, Analyze, and Respond to Risks
  • Attribute(s):
• Principle 8 - Assess Fraud, Improper Payment, and Information
  • Attribute(s):
• Principle 9 - Identify, Analyze, and Respond to Change
  • Attribute(s):
• Principle 10 - Design Control Activities
  • Attribute(s):
• Principle 11 - Design General Control Activities over Information
  • Attribute(s):
• Principle 12 - Implement Control Activities
  • Attribute(s):
• Principle 13 - Use Quality Information
  • Attribute(s):
• Principle 14 - Communicate Internally
  • Attribute(s):
• Principle 15 - Communicate Externally
  • Attribute(s):
• Principle 16 - Perform Monitoring Activities
  • Attribute(s):
• Principle 17 - Evaluate Issues and Remediate Deficiencies
  • Attribute(s):