Backcountry counting confusion

Hi there! Welcome back to Republic Recount — and thanks for bearing with me amid a little rebranding.

Regular readers might be familiar with tabulators, which are used to tally votes on paper ballots in Arizona. The machines have been used since pre-statehood days, but have become a favorite target of voting conspiracists in recent years.

Now, that wave of misinformation is hitting Navajo County and its 67,000 voters. Located in the northern half of Arizona, the county covers large swaths of Navajo Nation and the Hopi Reservation. It also includes Winslow, Snowflake and Holbrook, the county seat.

Officials there say the drama largely stems from the county's new, on-site tabulators. Previously, paper ballots from polling sites countywide would be transported to election headquarters at the close of voting to be tallied. But a few years ago, county officials decided to update their system. They purchased 14 new tabulators to be used at high-traffic vote centers.

Those machines allow voters to tabulate their ballots themselves at the polls. Memory cards and paper ballots are then transported back to Holbrook. County officials hoped the new technology would help save them time and get election night results out faster.

Ultimately, they found the machines weren't really doing so. But they did provoke lots and lots of questions from the public.

Since then, this rural swath of Arizona has been mired in the same conspiracies that the state's largest counties have been dealing with for years. Navajo County officials recently released an 18-page document outlining answers to questions from concerned voters. This week, county supervisors also opted to go back to central tabulation for all polling sites and move away from the new tabulators.

The entire saga is a compelling example of how misinformation can ignite a firestorm over moves intended to improve the election process.

Once started, it's hard to stamp it out. After voting to end on-site tabulation, county supervisors sat through an hourlong public comment period filled with residents insisting on a hand count of votes in the upcoming state primary and general elections — a move that would be illegal.

Here's what else I'm reading

• Attorney Bryan Blehm is in hot water with the State Bar of Arizona for lying while representing Kari Lake in a lawsuit challenging the results of Arizona's 2022 gubernatorial contest, per reporter Stacey Barchenger. Here's how he will be disciplined.
• Former President Donald Trump recently gave his stamp of approval to several prominent Arizona Republicans running for pivotal but historically little-known county seats with power over election certification. I explained why it matters.
• Speaking of local government, reporters Robert Anglen and Elena Santa Cruz have a must-read story on a crazy chain of events playing out in rural northeastern Arizona. There, the county attorney is running unopposed for reelection — and is being probed by state officials over allegations of misspent public monies and political intimidation.
• Primary ballots go out to Arizona voters in just a few weeks, and The Arizona Republic has a detailed voter guide with key information on every race. Check it out!

Politics isn't all serious. Here's some battleground state banter

After months of close votes, locking horns and finger-pointing, the Arizona Legislature wrapped up its work for the year late Saturday.

Sine die, the final adjournment of the session, was marked with great celebration by all.

That included Sen. Ken Bennett, who performed a parody song set to the tune of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. His self-written ditty playfully poked fun at his colleagues and their causes.

There are too many great lines to count, so my colleagues and I recommend you listen to the full thing. But if you only have a moment to spare, one of the best went like this: "The Supreme Court came up with a novel idea, let's go back to the mid-19th century. While the AG is plotting for a couple of our guys to end up in the state penitentiary."

That's it for today

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Have questions or feedback? Drop me a line at sasha.hupka@arizonarepublic.com. Or, shoot me a message on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, @SashaHupka. I'm also on Threads, @sashahupkasnaps.

I'll see you next week. In the meantime, more of our coverage is linked below. Thanks for reading!