Recorder Hansen Must be Publicly Transparent About Her Relationship with the Alliance
By Former 4-Term Arizona State Representative Robert Thorpe.
Your January 21, 2024 Daily Sun’s article “Local officials reject allegation of bias in Coconino Elections office by conservative outlet” contains inaccuracies and omissions, a disservice to your readers. Coconino citizens need to know:
- Political influence and bias within our Coconino Elections offices is completely unacceptable, whether it is from the right or from the left.
- After Arizona banned private financial influences within our Elections offices, is the Coconino Recorder subverting State law?
- What happened to the hundreds of thousands in private dollars pumped into Coconino Elections offices during the 2020 Presidential election?
- Why is the Coconino Recorder spending taxpayer dollars to partner with private partisan groups, did County Supervisors approve it?
- Why are private partisan groups creating our elections materials, instead of our paid Elections office staff that have always done this work in the past?
- Why hasn’t the Coconino Recorder been publicly transparent about her relationship with the Alliance?
Influencing Our Elections:
Millions of dark money “Zuckbucks” from rich Democrat donors, like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, were funneled into Elections offices within battleground states across our nation leading up to the 2020 Presidential election. The Center for Tech and Civic Life and other Alliance members (referred to here as the Alliance) are currently funded with $80 million from many of the same donors behind the four hundred million dollar Zuckbucks program.
Prior to the 2020 Presidential election, $5.1 million in Zuckbucks flowed into Arizona, with $3.9 million going to five of our counties. Coconino County Recorder Patty Hansen and our Elections offices received the third largest grant… what happened to those hundreds of thousands of dollars?
In 2021, Governor Doug Ducey signed into law A.R.S. section 16-407.01 in response to concerns that private monies, such as the millions in 2020 Zuckbucks given to our County Elections offices, may have had politically-biased influences on our elections. Arizona’s ban is very similar to those also enacted within 26-other states. It appears that Hansen and the Alliance may now be actively working to circumvent Arizona’s law prohibiting private financial influences within our Elections offices.
A New Scheme:
Instead of directly providing Zuckbucks to Elections officials, the Alliance created a membership program, a clever way to possibly subvert the letter and spirit of state laws. Here in Coconino County, the new program has not been disclosed to the public, but may work something like this: Hansen uses taxpayer dollars to purchase annual Alliance memberships. The Alliance then provides credits or “scholarships” back to Hansen in the form of services, but the types of services are not disclosed, and there is no public accounting as to their actual monetary value.
For example, in March 2023, Hansen requested that the Alliance create a new Coconino Voter Guide for 2024, voter roll verifications and other mailers. Hansen’s staff has always created these documents for past elections, so why does she need an outside private organization to create them now, and what are the actual monetary values of these private services?
A scenario worth considering: if Hansen pays thirty-six hundred dollars using limited taxpayer dollars for 2-years of her personal annual Alliance memberships, instead of actual Zuckbucks, what if she receives fifty thousand dollars worth of dark money value in return in the form of Alliance services? This is plausible, where the Alliance and Hansen circumvent the very purpose of the Arizona law, to keep private financial influences out of our Elections offices. For example, last year the Alliance gave Georgia a $2 million grant. To circumvent Georgia’s Zuckbucks ban, the money was funneled through a Finance department, who then transferred the $2 million to the Elections offices.
Hansen is the only Arizona county official spending her office’s limited taxpayer funded budget for her personal Alliance memberships, and for staff travel expenses to national Alliance events. Shockingly, the Alliance has also collected private, personal, sensitive information about Coconino Elections personnel, internal department operations and even our poll worker’s program. Hansen needs to be publicly transparent, to inform us about the full financial and politically influential relationship and impact that she has with the Alliance. Better yet, Hansen needs to completely end Coconino’s relationship with the Alliance.
Just the Facts Ma’am’:
Your Daily Sun headline is misleading. It is not local officials (plural) that are rejecting allegations of bias within Coconino Elections Offices, there is only one official, Hansen. In the article, Hansen states that the Federalist author did not even call her. Any good journalist knows that all communications should be in writing, and in this case they were written emails, not unverifiable telephone conversations, or hearsay. Ironically, Hansen has not released any transcripts of her telephone or verbal communications with or concerning the Alliance.
Your article did not address the specific findings within the Federalist post, instead it simply questioned the credibility of the website and author. It also introduced a distraction, a “red-herring,” by indicting organizations like the Federalist, or anyone questioning Hansen’s integrity. It suggests that there’s a conspiracy to denigrate county Elections officials, including threatening intimidating messages. However, your article then admits that no such messages have been received by Hansen, or by any of our other Coconino Elections officials. Our citizens have a right and a responsibility to ask tough questions of their government officials, they deserve to know the truth.
Concerning oversight, has the County Manager and Supervisors approved Hansen’s spending of her limited taxpayer funded budget to pay for Alliance expenses? Hansen’s office budget should only be used for its intended purpose, recording documents and elections-related activities and expenses. Not including expensive staff travel costs, the taxpayer dollars that Hansen has spent so far on just 2-years of her personal Alliance memberships would have paid the postage to mail out approximately eighteen thousand early ballots.
Outside Influences:
Taxpayers fully fund Hansen’s office, so why does she need outside private assistance? If Hansen lacks adequate office staff and funding, then she should ask County Supervisors for more money in order to do her job, instead of seeking private assistance to provide important public services.
Hansen’s emails suggest political bias. The Alliance asked Hansen to lobby Arizona’s congressional representatives to pass a $5 billion Biden budget line item. Hansen replied that Congressman Eli Craine, a Republican, would not be supportive. In response to the Alliance’s expensive lobbying request, Hansen did contact Democrats Rep. Ruben Gallego and Sen. Mark Kelly, and Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema who caucuses with Democrats.
Trustworthy Elections?
Political bias within our Elections offices is completely unacceptable, whether it is from the right or from the left. Many Coconino voters would be furious if the Conservative Koch Brothers were creating our elections materials, and financially influencing our county elections.
Voters must be confident that there is absolutely no hint of political bias, that our elections are honest, accurate and fair, and that their precious votes are faithfully and accurately counted and recorded. Unfortunately, trust and confidence have been in alarmingly short supply during many of our recent local and national elections. For these and many more reasons, Hansen needs to end Coconino County’s relationship with the Alliance, and with any other private partisan influences.
Robert Thorpe served in the Arizona State House for 8-years from 2013 to 2021, representing over 110,000 of our citizens within Coconino and three other counties, was a Chairman of four House Committees, served on the House Elections Committee, and is a 2024 candidate for Coconino County Recorder.