Problems that arose during the primary and general elections this year were primarily a result of poor planning, according to Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Steve Chucri.

Chucri was speaking to the Fountain Hills Republican Club Saturday morning, Dec. 15, and explaining audits conducted after the August primary election.

The elections in the county are run by the county recorder’s office and the board of supervisors has little say in what occurs.

“About 80 percent of what happens at an election is governed by [state] statute,” Chucri said. “The other 20 percent is policy in the elections manual.”

According to those documents, the recorder has authority over early ballots, voter registration and the ability to call for an emergency voting center.

“We [the board] can call for an internal audit and an external audit to find out what went wrong,” Chucri said. “We can’t force the recorder to do anything; our objective is to work collaboratively to do things better.”

Chucri declined to call out Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, specifically, but his remarks made it clear that he would have done things differently.

“I’m all for allowing people to vote however they choose – early mail ballot, if you want to go to the polls on election day to cast a ballot, great, or even simply drop off the ballot you received in the mail on Election Day. You should be able to do it however you want,” Chucri said.

He said that emergency voting centers are not for convenience, but for true emergency situations such as medical issues or being called out of town unexpectedly.

Chucri said they were asked whether they would hold the polls open on Election Day to allow for those unable to vote due to problems with equipment.

“We conferred with legal counsel, staff and one other supervisor and decided not to extend voting hours,” Chucri said. “The last time there was an extension was 1912.

“This would set a strong precedent…And this was clearly lack of preparedness, not other factors.”

Chucri said they will be looking at new technology for the voting process.

“We are still verifying signatures visually; our signatures change over time,” he said. “I can access my phone using my fingerprint. We need better equipment, better technology for election tabulation.

“We were still counting ballots two weeks after the election. That is ungodly unacceptable.

“There will be changes, we can’t have a repeat of this.”

Chucri said there would be more information about improvements in a couple of months. He noted there are just 13 months until the Presidential Preference election in 2020.