While things simmer down here in New York from yesterday's primary, news about last week's primary in Arizona is starting to make large waves. An official election observer and election integrity advocate by the name of John Brakey in Tucson was arrested and "frog-marched" out of the counting room by the emotionally-unbalanced Elections Chair Brad Nelson. His crime? Pointing out that security locks were not secure and asking questions about the integrity of the vote.
From The Brad Blog:
Pima County (Tucson), Arizona Election Integrity advocate and expert John Brakey was arrested last night while performing his job as an election supervisor, on behalf of both the Democratic and Libertarian parties, during a post-election hand-count audit of ballots.Brakey becomes the latest in a growing string of EI advocates to be arrested and/or barred from observing (Brakey was lucky enough to merit both "honors" apparently) while attempting to assure accuracy, fairness, and transparency in voting and in the reporting of election results on behalf of citizens.
The problem erupted after Brakey had noticed a number of ballot bags being counted in the post-election audit were missing their proper security seals. He began to ask questions about those bags, which eventually led to his arrest at the demand of Pima County's Brad "Election Director Gone Wild" Nelson, a man with whom Brakey has had a number of unfortunate (for Nelson) run-ins over the years.
Thankfully the local media swarmed all over the story and did not let Nelson simply get away with this outburst. While they might not have asked the questions that Brakey or Brad Blog proposes, it does shine light on the matter in a somewhat even-handed way.
Here's one example of a good question:
"All of these bags have been under 24 hour video surveillance, as well as a deputy sherrif have been watching these bags since they've come in on election night. So we have protected the bags," Nelson is quoted as saying.
He then adds: "So if a seal is missing, I feel fairly confident that the ballots inside are just as sound as when they left the polling place."
Really, Brad? Then, if that's the case, what's the point of using the seals at all? This guy is a disgrace to Tucson, Pima, Arizona, and Election Officials in general.
Nelson really is a disgrace, and way worse than F. Ann Rodriguez was at the job when it was handled by the County Recorder. Being a former Tucsonan, I remember John Brakey as an adamant and passionate advocate of clean and fair elections. Back in my former desert life, I was vice-chair of a district level Democratic party and John was always there presenting ways to make sure the process works for us, the electorate. It doesn't surprise me that someone like Nelson would want to throw him out of the counting room because of Brakey's tireless efforts to ensure a fair election.
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