The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office is asking the U.S. Justice Department to ensure they aren’t deploying election monitors with a history of committing election related crimes to Arizona.
The DOJ sends election monitors to Maricopa County regularly, but the County Attorney’s Office recently discovered that one of those monitors in this year’s primary pled guilty to an election-related crime in 2016.
On Wednesday, the county asked the department in a letter to check all of their monitors going forward to ensure they haven’t been convicted of similar crimes.
“The Department asks that you confirm in writing that the DOJ will not send any election monitors to Maricopa County whom the DOJ knows has a felony conviction of any kind, or a conviction for any election-related criminal offense,” the County Attorney’s Office wrote.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell also represents the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and the county elections department in this case.
The County Attorney’s Office said they won’t credential the monitor who pleaded guilty to serve in the general election.
DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels told KJZZ in an email that the monitor in question isn’t with the department and will not be a monitor in the general election.
The county also noted in their letter that Maricopa County has always had safe and secure elections.
The DOJ is under the purview of President Donald Trump who has claimed without evidence that past Maricopa County elections were rigged against him.
Source: www.kjzz.org
