Tyler Bowyer, an executive for conservative activist group Turning Point Action, revealed on Monday that he received two Maricopa County ballots for former residents of his home. He told The Arizona Sun Times the episode represented “horrible public policy” and “administration of our elections.”
Bowyer posted an image of four ballots to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday night, revealing that only two registered voters live at his address. Voters in Maricopa County, and much of Arizona, are required to use mail-in ballots for the November 7 elections.
“These people haven’t lived in this house for many many years,” wrote Bowyer on X, adding that “we did not receive their ballots in previous elections.” He said, “The only people that could be okay with this don’t take elections seriously.”
https://twitter.com/tylerbowyer/status/1714084937094320211
Bowyer told The Sun Times, “These voters have clearly not responded to election mail in many years. Now, during an all-mail, forced special election, we have potentially tens of thousands of similar ballots going to bad addresses that could impact these small elections.” He added, “[h]orrible public policy. Horrible administration of our elections.”
In a second post on X, he suggested Arizona should adopt a legal requirement for updating voter registration whenever a home is sold, calling it “common sense” that Republicans missed the opportunity to pursue under former Governor Doug Ducey’s administration.
https://twitter.com/tylerbowyer/status/1714088543054877126
In another post on social media, Bowyer confirmed he would check a box notifying election officials the recipients no longer live at his home and then return the ballots.
Maricopa County’s handling of the 2020 and 2022 elections remains highly controversial among Arizona Republicans, but elections expert and Arizona Republican Party third vice chair Gina Swoboda recently urged the state’s conservative voters to embrace mail-in voting to win future races.
“Because if the Democrats have already banked their votes and the Republican Party all waits until Election Day and we have another catastrophic failure,” as conservatives alleged happened in 2020 and 2022, “our votes just aren’t coming and we can’t make up the margin,” Swoboda added. “If we get out there and we get out there early, then there’s not gonna be a potential shenanigan where someone else gets my mail ballot and does something else.”
Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake and former Arizona Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh continue to contest their 2022 election losses, and Republicans argue the races were marred by issues with election equipment that disenfranchised voters in Republican strongholds.
Lake’s most recent trial ended with the judge refusing to allow any of her exhibits or witnesses, while Hamadeh was recently refused an expedited hearing for his appeal.
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Tom Pappert is a reporter for The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Tom on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Voting Ballots” by Tyler Bowyer.
