Apache County officials sued for not providing records on jail voting
“Apache County Sheriff’s Office and Apache County Recorder’s Office have escaped public oversight for too long.”
Campaign Legal Center and the ACLU of Arizona In the Apache County lawsuit
The Apache County sheriff and recorder were hit with a lawsuit on Thursday after not responding for nearly a year to public records requests on how eligible inmates in jail have access to vote.
The Arizona Coalition to End JailBased Disenfranchisement studies access to elections among eligible voters in correctional facilities. The Campaign Legal Center, a partner of the coalition, began requesting public records in March from all of Arizona’s 15 sheriffs and recorders to understand what voting procedures were in place for those incarcerated in jails and how many inmates had voted.
The coalition produced a report in July with the information it had received. However, not all sheriff ’s offices and counties complied with the public records requests. The Campaign Legal Center continued its public records requests and used the information to produce reports on the August primary and November general election.
After not receiving the records from four recorders and three sheriffs, the Campaign Legal Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona sent demand letters last week warning them of a potential lawsuit.
Dana Paikowsky, Equal Justice Works fellow for the Campaign Legal Center, said it has seen a constant problem of no transparency or responsiveness with its requests for almost a year.
“It has hindered the coalition’s ability to do this really important oversight work and advocacy work to serve voters in jail,” she said.
Sheriffs and recorders in Maricopa County and Yuma County complied with the demand letter. The Pima County Recorder’s Office told the groups it would let them know when the records were coming.
However, Apache County never responded to the requests, according to the ACLU of Arizona.
The lawsuit was filed in Apache County Superior Court by the Campaign Legal Center and the ACLU of Arizona.
The county did not immediately re
spond to The Arizona Republic’s request for comment.
Disenfranchisement inside jails among eligible voters is a common occurrence across the country including in Arizona, according to advocates.
One of the biggest reasons eligible voters in jails can’t vote is because officials don’t understand the law, according to Prison Policy.
The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office addressed election procedures for inmates in jails in its 2019 Elections Procedures Manual for the first time. Counties are required to coordinate with the recorder’s office, sheriff, public defenders and others to make plans and hold elections.
Not every person incarcerated in Arizona loses the right to vote once in custody.
Many people in jail are waiting for their trials and do not have felony convictions. Therefore, they are eligible to vote.
According to a 2016 report by The Sentencing Project, at the time there were an estimated 13,970 people incarcerated in Arizona jails and only 1,341 of them were not eligible to vote because of felony convictions.
“I think it is important to remember when we are talking about the group of people who are most likely to be jailed, we are talking about those who are historically, disproportionately marginalized voters,” Paikowsky said.
People of color, low-income people or people who lack access to education are disproportionately incarcerated and may face voter suppression.
People who are convicted of a misdemeanor keep their right to vote.
Voting rights restricted for felony convicts
According to The Sentencing Project, Arizona is one of 11 states with the toughest laws on restricting voting rights of people with convictions.
Once people are convicted of a felony and enter an Arizona prison, they lose their right to vote while they are in custody. Their civil rights may be restored when they are released.
There were 6.1 million people in the United States who did not have the right to vote because of a felony conviction in 2016.
It is estimated that 221,170 people do not have the right to vote in Arizona because of felony convictions, according to The Sentencing Project. Out of that population, 25,492 are Black.
If a person has only one felony conviction, they can have their civil rights restored automatically once they have completed probation or paid restitution.
A person with two or more felonies must petition the trial court that sentenced them to have their civil rights restored.
People sentenced to serve probation for life will not have their rights restored.
Lawsuit against Apache County
The Campaign Legal Center sent three public records requests to the Apache County sheriff and recorder
offices starting on March 30.
According to the court records, county officials have not provided any explanation on why the documents are being withheld.
“Apache County Sheriff ’s Office and Apache County Recorder’s Office have escaped public oversight for too long,” the lawsuit stated. “Intervention from this Court is necessary to ensure that Defendants comply with the law and furnish the requested records immediately.”
Jared Keenan, a lawyer for the ACLU, said Arizona’s public records law is important because it allows the public to know what officials are doing and hold them accountable.
“The ACLU is seeing, time and time again, government agencies just completely ignoring their duty to produce public records in a timely way which undermines the public trust in these institutions,” he said.
In its reports on voting protocols inside the jails, the coalition gives ratings for each county. It gave Apache a “C” in its July 2020 report, but did not give it a rating in its September report because of the county not providing the public records.
The coalition stated in its July report that Apache County had strong voting and voter education tools in place during that time but lacked meaningful registration procedures.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau 2019 estimate, the county population is 75% Native American, 22.3% white, 0.6% Black and 0.5% Asian.
Findings in Maricopa County
The coalition’s July 2020 report documented a story of a man who was incarcerated in a Maricopa County jail in 2018. According to the man, he did not receive an absentee ballot for that year. The Recorder’s Office told The Republic in August his ballots for the primary and general elections were mailed to the jail.
For the 2020 election, the Maricopa County Sheriff and Recorder offices worked on new initiatives to spread awareness on the eligibility to vote and prevent events from previous years.
However, the Campaign Legal Center and the ACLU continued to receive complaints from inmates on trying to vote during the 2020 election year.
Multiple inmates claimed they were denied pens from MCSO officers. A voter registration form is required to be completed with a pen if it is filled out offline.
The Elections Department told The Republic on Thursday it did not receive any complaints from inmates about the general election.
One inmate described the voting registration process as “stonewalling,” according to the ACLU. He had to complete three registration forms before he was finally registered.
In March, a free phone line was created to connect inmates to the Early Voting Center inside the Elections Department. Inmates are able to call the line if they need special assistance or have questions.
According to an inmate, it took him weeks to inquire about his voter registration status. When he was on the phone with an elections office employee, an MCSO officer made him get off the phone and said the call needed to be done earlier in the day, according to the inmate.
The ACLU said some inmates reported MCSO officers provided false information about their voter eligibility or directed them to voting information that didn’t exist.
The Recorder’s Office told The Republic in August it was providing the jails information to be downloaded on the inmates’ tablets. It was the same educational materials and resources provided to the general public.