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The history of Election Integrity in Arizona is not a good one. In October 1964 the Republican Party established "Operation Eagle Eye" to discourage anyone "ethnic" from voting. Operation Eagle Eye was not just an eagle eye. Chief Justice William Rehnquist was just a phoenix lawyer then but, as a law clerk in 1952, he had written , while a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, that the infamous “separate but equal” doctrine announced by the Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1892), which sanctioned Jim Crow segregation in the American South, “was right and should be affirmed.” Rehnquist was a Phoenix lawyer then and Barry Goldwater needed him to shine.
There's nothing new under the disenfranchisement sun. Eagle Eye came close to night riding. Fraud and intimidation were the orders of the day. If this was a favored precinct, Republicans made sure it ran Republicans at high speeds. Democrats were shunted aside and challenged arbirtrarily. The fate was worse in Democratic precincts. There the goal was stall. Take as much time voting as possible and, if you were questioned about taking to much time, harangue the election officials as long as possible
The Party running Eagle Eye knew 44 years ago where to go, who to target and what to do. It takes a team to undermine the integrity of elections and it will take a team to counter it.
In every election things occur by accident or design that effect the outcome of the election. Most of the time these anomolies are disregarded because the results don't turn the election or, at least, aren't perceived as turning the election.
In 2002 all that changed when it became clear that the some voting discrepancies were greater than the margins of the Presidential election. People became palpably aware that if the votes were simply more accurately counted, the election would have gone the other way. It was, with that memory in their mouths that the Arizona State Democratic Party in ________ of _________ created a subcommittee of the State Committee that would be specifically charged with ensuring the integrity of Arizona elections from the prospective of the Arizona Democratic Party. This was the first time that a state Democratic Party had attempted such a task.
Since that time the Election Integrity Committee has made great strides. The Democratic Party in Arizona now has mini-task forces who break the process into smaller steps and attack in smaller groups that can then interface with the whole.
The Commitee has been instrumental in getting legislation passed that now hand audits ballots after the close of the election.