Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap sent the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBOS) a letter on Wednesday from his attorney James Rogers warning them that their plan to set up 12 ballot drop boxes was illegal and could result in criminal prosecution.
Heap said in the letter, “Only the Recorder possesses the statutory authority to designate the locations for drop boxes and to establish them. … The Board’s only authority with respect to drop boxes is limited to election-day operations at voting centers and polling places.” He cited A.R.S. 16- 542(A), which provides that provides that “[t]he county recorder may establish on-site early voting locations” at the recorder’s office, and that “[t]he county recorder may also establish any other early voting locations in the county the recorder deems necessary.”
Heap said A.R.S. 16-1005(E) states that “[a] person or entity that knowingly solicits the collection of voted or unvoted ballots by misrepresenting itself as an election official or as an official ballot repository or is found to be serving as a ballot drop off site, other than those established and staffed by election officials, is guilty of a class 5 felony.”
He said it violates Arizona’s law against ballot harvesting. “A.R.S. 16-1005(H) makes it a class 6 felony for ‘[a] person who knowingly collects voted or unvoted early ballots from another person,’ with an exception for ‘an election official’ when ‘engaged in official duties.’”
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