August 4, 2022

Pinal County Elections Director out

Changes were promised after election problems on Tuesday.

360 primary ballot box A voter turns in his ballot at a polling site set up at Tucson's Temple Emanu-El on the day of Arizona's primary election, Aug. 4, 2020.
John DeSoto/AZPM Staff

Officials in Pinal County are vowing to overhaul their election procedures. That pledge comes after a shortage of ballots at about two dozen voting sites led to some voters leaving before being able to cast their primary votes.

In a statement today, the county said David Frisk is no longer the elections director and no longer works for the county. His replacement is the current county recorder, Virginia Ross.

Pinal County Attorney Kent Volkmer and Board of Supervisors Chair Jeffrey McClure both blamed Tuesday's problems on human error.

McClure called it “a major screw-up.” McClure says he has seen no evidence of a “nefarious act” but said mistakes were made “on a grand scale.”

The problems were the second in the primary. When mail ballots were sent out early in July, many were missing city races and the county was forced to send supplemental ballots to those voters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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