PIMA COUNTY, Arizona - September 7, 2008 - Will police crack
down on election observers in November?
While monitoring a hand count of ballots from the September 3rd Arizona primary in his capacity as an official election observer for the Democratic and Libertarian parties, EDA Investigations Co-Coordinator John Brakey was arrested and ejected from the Pima County election headquarters on orders of Pima County Elections Director Brad Nelson.
Brakey had noticed that several of the incoming bags containing ballots from the precincts had unsecured or missing seals. The seal failures appeared to be the result of poll workers not knowing how to properly lock them.
Brakey then wondered whether the serial numbers on the bag seals matched the serial numbers recorded by the precinct poll workers when they sealed the ballots. One question led to another, and Brakey ended up in handcuffs.
Seal serial numbers are supposed to be recorded on yellow report sheets, called "End of Day Certification Reports." The certification sheets are supposed to be signed by all precinct poll workers and included with the ballots inside the delivery bags. The bags are supposed to remain sealed until opened for counting at county election headquarters.
In one bag, instead of the signed official certification sheets, there was a slip of white paper with what Brakey said were "two illegible, scrawled signatures." Brakey watched Election Manager Brad Nelson read the slip, say he recognized who the two poll workers were, and approve acceptance of that bag of ballots for counting.
Brakey found it rather remarkable that Nelson would be so familiar with the county's 3000 poll workers that he could identify two of them by illegible scrawls on a slip of paper.
Brakey then began checking other incoming ballot bags. In the first 7 successive ballot bags he checked, the required yellow certification reports were missing. This included bags with open seals, as well as bags with seals intact.
As Brakey was speaking to members of the counting panels alerting them to his discoveries, Election Director Nelson came up to him and told him to leave.
Brakey replied that he was appointed to be an election observer and he intended to stay on the job until closing time at 1:00 a.m. Nelson told him to leave immediately or he would be arrested. Brakey refused. At that point a deputy sheriff present placed Brakey under arrest for trespassing, handcuffed him, and removed him from the building.
Once outside, Brakey requested his legally allowed phone call, and placed it to his attorney, Bill Risner. Word of Brakey's arrest immediately went out to the network of election integrity activists Brakey has built with the grassroots group AUDIT-AZ.
Shortly thereafter the county elections building was swarming with television news crews.