Grand Canyon Times

Despite receiving hundreds of voter complaints regarding the use of black markers at polling locations, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich determined yesterday there’s no foul play.

“Based on correspondence and conversations with Maricopa County officials, we are now confident that the use of Sharpie markers did not result in disenfranchisement for Arizona voters,” Brnovich tweeted. “We appreciate the county’s prompt insight and assurances to address public concerns.”

The announcement comes on the heels of the Attorney General’s Appeal and Constitutional Litigation Division sending a letter demanding answers from Scott Jarrett, Maricopa County election director.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich

“Voters are concerned that the use of Sharpies may have caused ballots to be rejected, spoiled, or canceled,” Michael Catlett, the deputy solicitor general wrote in a Nov. 4 letter also posted on Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s Twitter page. “To investigate these complaints, the office requests, the following information in writing by noon on Nov. 5. If you are unable to provide specific answers to the below questions by that deadline, we request a narrative explanation of what steps you're taking to obtain answers.”

The letter was sent to Jarrett, director of Election Day and Emergency Voting with the Maricopa County Elections Department, in response to voter concern about envelopes being marked with Sharpies that potentially soaked through onto the ballot causing it to be invalidated, according to media reports.

Jarrett, formerly a manager with Maricopa County’s internal audit department, was promoted to the new position in June 2019 by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

The questions the attorney general’s Election Integrity Unit (EIU) asked Jarrett to address included:

“How many ballots at each voting center were rejected? Of these ballots, how many were rejected because of over-votes of those ballots rejected because of over-votes, how many were rejected because the ink from a marker bled through to the reverse side of the ballot?”

The Legislature launched the EIU after the 2018 election under the Arizona Revised Statutes § 16-1021, which allows for the enforcement of state election law violations.

“We did so because the 2018 elections had a shadow cast over it of rumors and accusations of voter fraud and stolen elections,” Ryan Anderson, spokesman for Brnovich, a Republican, told the Grand Canyon Times. “It's dangerous when you have voters, regardless of their party, who lack trust and confidence in their elections and the institutions that help run our elections.”

About 90% of the votes cast Nov. 3 for the presidential election have reportedly been counted, with former Vice President Joe Biden leading over President Trump. The Associated Press, ABC, and Foxx news have declared Biden the winner, according to media reports.

“There were certainly critics of the press for having called the race potentially too early in Arizona, but those were outside news outlets,” Anderson told the Grand Canyon Times.