1.07
Control Environment
Principle 1: Demonstrate Commitment to Integrity and Ethical Values
Attribute 1.07: Management, with oversight from the oversight body, defines the organization's expectations of ethical values in the standards of conduct. Management may consider using policies, operating principles, guidelines, or training to regularly communicate and reinforce the standards of conduct to the organization.
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Jamie's Story
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.
Election Anomalies
This Green Book Attribute, 1.07, emphasizes the following:
"Management may consider using policies, operating principles, guidelines, or training to regularly communicate and reinforce the standards of conduct to the organization."
In this case, the Assistant Director for Recruitment and Training is directing employees to violate the ballot instructions to use ballpoint pens in email to inspectors and everyone on the board. The message is especially concerning coming from the Assistant Director of Recruitment and Training, which is likely to have been one of the few senior leaders from Maricopa County government these newly hired temporary workers met during there orientation, assuming an orientation was provided. The following are specific deviations.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
