Gabriella Cázares-Kelly is the Pima County Recorder and one of the county’s top elections officials. With the countdown to the general election underway, we asked her how much faith do voters have in our local, state and national elections, and how could that make a difference in the November count.
Cázares-Kelly says voting by mail for the general election is generating debate and some confusion.
The Trump administration told the U. S. Postal Service to put new electronic-based restrictions on mail-in voting. But a whistleblower complaint earlier this week revealed the screening system is plagued with problems and hasn’t been tested.
Cázares-Kelly explains the controversy is putting more pressure on her staffers preparing ballots that need to be sent to uniformed and overseas voters September 18. Early voting for the general public begins on October 7.
Also, Cázares-Kelly explains her fight for same-day voter registration. Currently, people in Arizona must register to vote 29 days before Election Day. Cázares-Kelly says it’s important for voters to have better options casting their ballots, and she notes it’s another front in the ongoing battle over voter rights in Arizona.
Stream the conversation with Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly below, and watch the full edition of this week's The Press Room at 8:30 pm tonight, Friday, Sept. 4, on PBS 6.
VIDEO: The Press RoomA full transcript of our interview can be found below:
Tony Perkins: Hello and welcome to the Press Room. I'm Tony Perkins. Gabriella Cázares-Kelly is Pima County's elected official overseeing mail-in ballots. With vote-by-mail under fire at a federal level, what does that mean for elections locally?
Gabriella, thank you and welcome to The Press Room.
Gabriella Cázares-Kelly: Thank you for having me.
Tony Perkins: One of the things that we're hearing about in the news is voting by mail and a specific target by the Trump administration. Now, the administration has told the U.S. Postal Service recently to put new electronic-based restrictions on mail-in voting. The courts told the Postal Service to stop developing the restrictions and the USPS refused. And that puts election officials like yourself in a big bind.
Gabriella Cázares-Kelly: That's accurate. Yeah. We are struggling to find out what the requirements are at this point. So Pima County is voluntarily participating in three of the measures that are listed in the executive order.
We are sending unique barcodes on all of our outbound mail, unique barcodes on our return ballot return envelopes. And we are also going through the USPS ballot design analysis. The fourth, however, is a ballot portal that is mentioned by the USPS, which we do not have yet any information.
So apparently it doesn't exist. We have not had access to it. We have no logins. We have not done any testing. And we also don't know how mail that is outside of those unique barcodes, such as address confidentiality voters or voters who receive a braille ballot or large print or other categories such as those.
Tony Perkins: Now this news has gone on to the federal level. A whistleblower came forward and told members of Congress that this is an issue that's going to affect everybody, not just in Arizona, but all across the country. And that brings again the question of how reliable our election is going to be this year.
Gabriella Cázares-Kelly: Right now, as it stands, as of today, and I really want to emphasize that things have been changing very quickly, even as we are in meetings with the secretary of state's office or attorney general's and all of the recorders statewide. We are sometimes getting updates in the middle of the updates. And so things are changing very quickly.
But for now, it's really important to know that all election officers in the state are preparing for an election as usual. We're on schedule and on time to bring forward a safe and secure election as usual. And we're really racing against the clock to ensure that there are no major changes before ballots go out.
Tony Perkins: All right. Let's go to some of the other top issues regarding elections. And one of those is election security. And that's made a lot of news, of course, not just in the past few weeks, but the last couple of years.
An audit of the 2020 general election in Arizona delivered no evidence of fraud and that mail-in ballots are secure, for example. But in a recent ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court's majority suggests that there is something wrong with our election system. And so going into this November general election, how can confidence be restored in our election system?
Gabriella Cázares-Kelly: I think my office in particular, the Pima County Recorder's Office, we have done so much to provide transparency to the voters. If you visit our website, you can even take a look at our training materials. There are reports that we are voluntarily putting up on our website. It is such a safe and secure process. It is convenient.
And there are these allegations that continue to come out about concerns about election voting. They're unfounded. These are conspiracy theories that don't make sense.
Tony Perkins: All right. Let's talk a little bit about voter registration. And you have some strong feelings about voting rights. You said on your website that you backed same-day voter registration and restoring voting rights, for example, who have felonies. In Arizona, you have 29 days, generally a month, before the election to register to vote. And if you've been convicted of a felony offense, you have the right to vote suspended. And if you're a first-time offender, you get that right restored. Is that correct?
Gabriella Cázares-Kelly: Correct, and once you've completed your sentence.
Tony Perkins: My question for you is, why are these important rights to fight for?
Gabriella Cázares-Kelly: Same-day voter registration, that's such an important process. In other states, they're already doing this. The 29-day limitation had to do with paper voter registration rolls. This had to do with literally the physical printing of rolls, which we no longer do.
Now that we have increased the technology and the ability for a person to register to vote closer to election day or on election day, it would simply be a provisional ballot. It would simply be a way for us to receive information about the voter, to register that voter in the same way that we do for any other voter who had submitted their voter registration beforehand.
But we run into so many people who are in the middle of changes. Maybe they move. Maybe a veteran who has served in a war, who comes in and has missed the deadline by a day.
We are constantly interacting with the general public who are reminding us that we have this needless requirement that we now have the technology to be able to move forward with. We have the ability to now offer same-day voter registration and it would be a benefit to the general public.
Tony Perkins: And there's also an issue about voter identification.
Gabriella Cázares-Kelly: So the ID verify is a way for voters, typically voters who are returning what we call a late early ballot. So that ballot is already late. For those voters who are dropping them off as soon as they receive them or in the early weeks of the election, early voting time period, those voters are doing great. The voters who are needing to use the voter ID, what we call the ID verify, are voters who are returning their ballot later than they should. And so rather than having them wait, they will then show their identification, submit their ballot, and it will stay with the Elections Department who facilitates Election Day. This is a way to bypass the signature verification requirement, which is also a way that we are identifying voters. This is their identification, is a signature.
And so either way, we instituted this in the last cycle in the primary election and we saw a minimal. I think it'll be most significant for a county as big as Maricopa, but for Pima County, it's about a 50-50. We always do encourage voters to return their ballots as early as possible and not wait until Election Day, because if they would like to see their vote included in the results that come out on Election Night, those are all early ballots. None of those are from Election Day. Vote centers close at 7 p.m. And if there's a voter in line, they are still able to stay, and that location is there until the last voter leaves. They then have to close out. They have to audit all of their documents and close the location and then drive that over to either to the ballot processing center, where those ballots will then be prepared for tabulation, or to a central area where they drop everything off and then it gets driven over.
Election results come out at 8 o'clock. So for the very first time, the Elections Department who has been processing those ballots and tabulating, they tabulate without generating a report, and so the results come out at 8 o'clock.
So if you dropped off your ballot on Election Day, your ballot is still waiting to even make it to the ballot processing center. It is not part of those numbers, and in fact, will not be processed until the next business day.
Tony Perkins: All right. It sounds very complicated for the people who work for you and work in your office.
And one of the things for voters to know is the series of deadlines that are coming up over the next few weeks. It's on your website, but can we go over some of those deadlines right now?
Gabriella Cázares-Kelly: Sure.
Tony Perkins: As you said, the ballots should be coming in the mail for people in the next two weeks or a little bit over two weeks. In 34 days. October 5th is the voter registration deadline. So if a voter needs to make a change, they are generally okay.
Gabriella Cázares-Kelly: At this point, changing your political party won't make a difference because everyone will be receiving the same ballot with the same races.
For voters who are changing their address, they should do that as soon as possible because prior to the election, Pima County, we're mailing half a million ballots. That means our printer has been working on our mailings for weeks. And once the ballot design is finalized, they get assembled and they are sitting shrink wrapped in a secure area ready for trucks. There can be 30 or so pallets of ballots at one time. And so if someone makes their change to their voter registration too close to an election, they might receive a ballot at the wrong location. So it's very important to make that change as soon as possible.
However, if you are experiencing a situation where you're moving in a few days and you're already registered, there are options for you. You could also show up to vote in-person early or tell us a temporary address where we can send your ballot.
For anybody who is out of state, we can send a ballot pretty much anywhere. And even if we have somebody who is out of the country, there is an option for you. We have an ability to send a ballot anywhere in the world. And I believe in Arizona, Maricopa has even sent a ballot to space.
And I say anywhere. I really mean anywhere.
Tony Perkins: And overall, once again, it's very complicated two months ahead for your office. Labor Day is the time, or the weekend, is the time when the political campaigns go into full swing and the candidates have their schedules. But for your workers, it's a tough schedule too.
Gabriella Cázares-Kelly: Yes, it has been a very busy year. This will be our third election for the year. Of course, we had the Regional Transportation Authority countywide election. We had the primary, which is a federal election and causes a lot of confusion because voters who are no-party designated, who often refer to themselves as independent, they do not automatically receive a ballot and it causes some confusion. So that one's a big lift. And then now the general election, which more people tend to be interested in. We have several big races on the ballot. We have the governor's race. We have the lieutenant governor for the very first time in Arizona. We have Secretary of State, Corporation Commission, very, very big, important races on the ballot this cycle.
Tony Perkins: All right. So much we could talk about with the election coming up. But I appreciate your time with us today. Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, we really appreciate you being on The Press Room.
Gabriella Cázares-Kelly: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
