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By Valeria Fernández, New America Media

PHOENIX, Ariz. — The agency that administers elections in Maricopa County confirmed Wednesday evening that it had more than 400,000 ballots yet to be counted. The announcement confirmed claims by activists here who had been protesting outside the Maricopa County Recorders Office, saying Latino voters in the county had had trouble casting their ballots on Tuesday.

Opponents of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the controversial figure known for his hard stance on illegal immigration, who is running for his sixth term as sheriff, are hoping that the uncounted ballots could swing the election in their favor. As of Wednesday evening, election results showed Arpaio leading his Democratic challenger Paul Penzone by more than 88,000 votes.

Of the 400,000 ballots yet to be counted, about 300,000 are early ballots that could have been turned in on Election Day or a few days before; and more than 115,000 are provisional ballots, according to a press release issued by the recorders office late Wednesday.

Statewide, the number of uncounted ballots is 600,000 according to the Arizona Secretary of State. That means that two-thirds of these are in Maricopa County.

The high number of uncounted ballots surpassed the expectations of county officials based on past presidential elections and has caused an uproar from voter mobilization groups that are part of a campaign to oust Arpaio.

“We want to make sure that every vote is counted,” said Petra Falcón, director of the organization Promise Arizona that together with the Campaign for Arizona’s Future spearheaded the Adios Arpaio initiative.

The initiative registered more than 35,000 new Latino voters, many of them into a Permanent Early Voting List.

On Election Day, volunteers from the Adios Arpaio initiative reported a number of problems, including that voters did not get their ballots to vote by mail and decided to do it in person, casting a provisional ballot.

“I don’t pretend to know what the reason is for this. This is an election in which the county recorder gave on multiple occasions the wrong date,” said Brendan Walsh, political director with Unite Here and part of the Adios Arpaio campaign.

The Maricopa County Recorders Office mailed out Spanish-language voting materials that had the wrong election date. They later apologized and invested in an outreach campaign to make sure that Latinos got the right information. “Now we have a massive number of ballots that have not been counted yet.”

Walsh said that there are “concerns with the process, coordination, and accuracy that is so far disproportionately affecting Latino members of the community.”

“Late” early voting surpasses expectations

“We are aware that there is a large interest in the final outcome of some races. However, our office cannot sacrifice accuracy for speed. Today we’ve tabulated 44,455 early ballots,” County Recorder Helen Purcell said in a press release on Wednesday.

The canvass of elections, which will make the results official, is scheduled for Nov. 26.

On Election Day, Purcell had said she predicted they would have about 100,000 early ballots dropped at the polling places and 75,000 provisional from Election Day. She based those estimates on numbers from previous elections.

Provisional ballots, she said, can take a bit longer to check.

“We have to make sure that in fact they’re a registered voter, they were in the right precinct, and they didn’t vote an early ballot,” Purcell explained on election night.

Provisional ballots cast in the wrong precinct are not counted.

Rodolfo Espino, a political science professor at Arizona State University, said the unprecedented number of early and provisional ballots could be due to a combination of factors, including lack of proper training by poll workers and a massive number of new voters going to the polls to drop off their vote-by-mail ballots.

One factor that could be at play “is that the voter registration efforts, especially by a lot of the civil rights Hispanic organizations were very successful,” he said.

“Perhaps the recorders office did not anticipate that there would be that flood of early ballots being cast, because a lot of these organizations were not just going and signing up Latino voters; they were telling them about a process to vote by mail,” said Espino.

Volunteers from Citizens for a Better Arizona (CBA), spearheaded by activist Randy Parraz, and other groups are calling on Democrat Paul Penzone to retract his concession that Arpaio won the sheriff’s race until all votes are counted.

Penzone conceded to Arpaio’s sixth-term re-election on Tuesday night. On Wednesday evening the margin of difference between both candidates was over 88,000 votes. Arpaio received 52 percent of the vote, and Penzone 43 percent. A third candidate, Michael Stauffer, who ran as an Independent, got 4 percent of the vote.

Espino said he didn’t expect the outcome of the sheriff’s race to change, regardless of the uncounted ballots, unless a majority of these voters were Democrats and Latinos — unlike the voters whose ballots have already been counted.

He emphasized that there’s a possibility that the margin of votes separating Arpaio and Penzone may change, causing the “post-election analysis by the media having to be updated and re-written” regarding the role played by Latino voters in the race.

This article was first published in New America Media.

[Photo by New America Media]

By Latino Rebels

Looks like the recent attention that Maricopa County in Arizona (the same county where Sheriff Joe Arpaio is for running re-election and the same county where over 36,000 new voters were registered to defeat America’s Toughest Sheriff) has finally gotten county recorder Helen Purcell to respond. After two errors that listed the incorrect Election Day date in Spanish voting materials had made the Internet and the national press, and after Purcell was issuing “no comment” yesterday about the second error, earlier the county issued a bilingual press statement that tried to clarify what happened.

Purcell admits errors were made, but not without vehemently denying that it was some part of a larger conspiracy. Not only were the wrong dates printed on voter materials, but there were also questions of whether a completed ballot “could not be delivered to the post office or the county by anyone other than the person named on the ballot.”

Here is what Purcell released today regarding all the controversies:

YOUR VOTE IS YOUR VOICE – MARICOPA COUNTY RECORDER HELEN PURCELL

October 23, 2012 – It has been a difficult week, but I want to make sure voters in Maricopa County know we consider this office as a sacred trust. We in Maricopa County have dedicated our careers and our lives to protect and expand the citizens’ right to vote. Let me address some misconceptions that have arisen recently; some, unfortunately, of our own making.

First of all, I never said that it is illegal, much less a Class 5 felony, to collect, possess and deliver ballots of voters. Indeed, this office has worked cooperatively with a host of organizations, of all parties and persuasions, to assist voters get their ballots to the polls. We applaud the work of Promise Arizona and other groups in their efforts to register new qualified voters and have their ballots counted.

It is, however, illegal for anyone to falsely represent himself as a Maricopa County Elections Department official.  The County Recorder’s Office is not sending out workers to collect ballots. It is wrong, illegal, a Class 5 felony, to misrepresent yourself as an elections official if you are not. We question why anyone would do that – especially as an attempt to undermine the commendable get-out-the-vote efforts of political parties and community activist groups.

Concerning the regrettable error on the Spanish-language Voter ID and bookmark: I wish I could say we never made a mistake in this office. But we do. However, the suggestion that this office would be a party to a dark conspiracy to depress voter turnout among any constituency or ethnic group is contrary to the  history, the commitment and ideals of this office, my staff and my life’s work.  It is simply a malicious lie. We have dedicated decades of the highest public service to expand voter participation. A former President once described the vote as the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice. We agree and our professional careers attest to that high mission.

To that end, we will be launching a very aggressive Spanish language publicity campaign to make sure everyone knows that the election will be held on Tuesday, November 6. Martes, 6 de noviembre. Such a message already appears prominently, in Spanish and English, on the Maricopa County Recorder’s and Elections Department Websites.

Your vote is your voice. We take seriously our responsibility to enable you to use it.

SU VOTO ES SU VOZ – REGISTRADORA DEL CONDADO MARICOPA HELEN PURCELL

23 de Octubre, 2012 – Ha sido una semana dificil, pero quiero asegurarme de que los votantes en el Condado Maricopa sepan que consideramos esta oficina como un deber sagrado. Nosotros en el Condado Maricopa hemos dedicado nuestras carreras y nuestras vidas a proteger y ampliar el derecho de los ciudadanos a votar. Permitanme abordar algunos conceptos erróneos que han surgido recientemente; algunos, desafortunadamente, de nuestra propia creación.

En primer lugar, nunca dije que es ilegal, mucho menos un delito grave de Clase 5, recopilar, poseer y entregar boletas de votantes. De hecho,esta oficina ha trabajado en cooperación con una serie de organizaciones, de todos los partidos y convicciones, para ayudar a obtener a los votantes sus votos a las urnas. Aplaudimos el trabajo de Promise Arizona y otros grupos en sus esfuerzos para registrar a nuevos votantes calificados y que sus boletas sean contadas..

Sin embargo, es ilegal, que alguien falsamente se represente a sí mismo como un oficial del Departamento de Elecciones del Condado Maricopa.  La Oficina del Registrador del Condado no está enviando a los trabajadores a recoger boletas. Es erróneo, ilegal, un delito mayor de Clase 5,a tergiversar usted mismo como un oficial de elecciones si no lo es. Nos preguntamos por qué alguien haría eso – especialmente como un intento de socavar los encomiables esfuerzos para promover el voto de partidos politicos y grupos de activistas de la comunidad.

Sobre el lamentable error en la Identificación de Votante y el marcador en Español me gustaría poder decir que nunca cometimos un error en esta oficina. Pero lo hacemos. Sin embargo, la sugerencia de que esta oficina sería parte de una obscura conspiración para deprimir la participación electoral entre cualquier circunscripción o grupo étnico es contraria a la historia, el compromiso y los ideales de esta oficina, mi personal y el trabajo de mi vida.  Es simplemente una mentira malintencionada. Hemos dedicado décadas del más alto servicio público a expander la participación de los votantes. Un ex Presidente una vez describió el voto como el instrumento más poderoso jamás diseñado por el hombre para derribar la injusticia. Estamos de acuerdo y nuestra carrera profesional da fé a esa alta misión.

A tal fin, lanzaremos una muy agresiva campaña de publicidad en Español para asegurar que todo el mundo sepa que la elección se llevará a cabo el Martes, 6 de noviembre.  Dicho mensaje aparece ya en un lugar destacado, en Español y en Inglés, en los Sitios Web del Registrador del Condado Maricopa y el Departamento de Elecciones.

Su voto es su voz. Tomamos seriamente nuestra responsabilidad para que pueda usarlo.

At least this time, the office got the actual date right in the release. Like we said previously, 6 in Spanish is the same as 6 in English.

This article was first published in Latino Rebels.

The Latino Rebels are a collective of social media influentials, bloggers, marketers, journalists, poets, writers, producers, photographers, and marketers. We use humor, commentary, opinions, independent stories, cross-links to others blogs, and our social media platforms to share our universe.

[Photo by  DonkeyHotey]

Maybe Sheriff Joe Arpaio should be paying closer attention to what’s happening in his own department. The controversial Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, has made a name for himself persecuting undocumented immigrants and attracting national media attention in the process. But news from azcentral.com is making his tough veneer look a lot like incompetence.

Three members of his own staff, including one deputy in the human-smuggling unit, were arrested  on charges of human and drug smuggling.

Deputy Alfredo Navarrette, 37, has worked with the Sheriff’s Office for nearly a decade, serving in a special unit designed to target human smugglers moving through Maricopa County. But investigators believe Navarrette was himself involved in human smuggling. Investigators found two undocumented immigrants in Navarrette’s home when he was arrested early Tuesday morning in a sweep that concluded a yearlong investigation.

Also arrested were Sylvia Najera, 25, and Marcella Hernandez, 28. Both are Maricopa county sheriff’s detention officers and are charged with money laundering and transporting illegal drugs.

Apparently, all three were involved with an alleged crime organization supposedly led by Francisco “Lorenzo” Arce-Torres, a suspected drug kingpin and leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel in Phoenix who was arrested a day before the three sheriff’s employees.

Authorities say that Deputy Navarrete was in a position to provide vital information to drug traffickers regarding the location and movements of  the police.

Investigators say they believe Navarrette helped the ring by fortifying Arce-Torres’ home with surveillance cameras, registering drug-courier vehicles in his name and laundering money.

The arrests were the culmination of a year-long investigation that resulted in the arrests of another 12 people linked to the drug and human smuggling operation.

Follow Victor Landa on Twitter: @vlanda

[Photo by Gage Skidmore]