🧵

In honor of having just submitted my tax payments...

Some charts on federal income taxes!

(Most of this from @CatoInstitute, @adamnmichel, @JoshLoucks27)

1) "Pay your fair share!"

The top 1% of ordinary income earners make 22.4% of all income.

But they pay 40.4% of all federal income taxes.

The top 2%-5% of ordinary income earners make 15.9% of all income.

But they pay 20.6% of all federal income taxes.

The bottom 50% of ordinary income earners make 11.5% of all income.

But they pay 3.0% of all federal income taxes. 2) "Pay your fair share!" pt. 2

The top 0.1% of ordinary income earners pay 33.4% of all federal income taxes.

🧵

Some, but by no means all, of our accomplishments at @RecordersOffice over the past 3 years and 11 months.

(In no particular order)

1) Maricopa Title Alert

Maricopa Title Alert allows the user to receive text message or email alerts anytime the selected individual name, business name, or trust name is indexed in a recorded document.

The service is free, available in English and Spanish, and it takes only two minutes to sign up.

This allows the user to monitor against deed fraud or any other fraudulent or inaccurate recording.

We now have over 77,000 users.

TitleAlert.Maricopa.Gov 2) New Elections and Voter Registration Website

When I took Office, we had a 10+ year-old website that contained all three lines of business: recording, voter registration, and election administration.

We instead created two websites: one for voter registration and election administration, and one website for recording. Because that makes more sense for users.

The new voter registration and election website (Elections.Maricopa.Gov) is modern, way easier to use, fully integrates the voter dashboard, and has way more features (e.g. visual representation of all the voting locations, real time update of voter registration statistics, do-it-yourself tours of the election facility, downloadable election maps, voter assistance requests, English-to-Spanish toggle).

🧵Election reform.

For the past two years, I’ve been statutorily responsible for voter registration, early voting (until Friday 5:00 PM), and provisional ballots in Maricopa County.

1/25 I have also closely observed the election administration responsibilities of the Board of Supervisors: emergency voting (Sat, Sun, Monday before Election Day), election day, and tabulation.

2/25

If you want to get to 95%+ of results on Election Night, you have to move the deadline up for early ballot returns (like Florida).

But you could also start early voting earlier (also like FL). Such that the total of early voting days remains the same.

https://twitter.com/azcentral/status/1599928116490645504

Sadly, the “feed early ballots into Election Day tabulators” idea doesn’t work because early ballots have to be coded differently from Election Day ballots to prevent double voting.

And only 1/2 of counties allow on site tabulation anyway.

🧵Over the next few weeks, I'll write on possible changes to early voting, voter registration, and recording (the control of the 15 county recorders) in Arizona.

Some of these ideas will be advanced by the Arizona Association of County Recorders (of which I'm president)

1/24 But some are just my ideas (like this one; I think my friend, colleague, and vice president @GabriellaCKelly has a different take on this).

The number one issue I heard about during this election is:

WE WANT RESULTS FASTER!

I'm very sympathetic to this wish.

2/24

🧵After the polls closed last night, we shifted back to my operations (Early Vote).

Last night, we took in over 275,000 early ballots dropped off yesterday, Election Day.

These are different from the approximately 230,000 people that the Board of Supervisors...

1/X had yesterday who fed their ballots into the tabulation machines.

These ballots come back in green envelopes with a barcode and signed.

Last night from midnight to 5:00 AM, we sorted those 275,000+ ballots so they could be scanned in and image captured for the signature

2/X

🧵Results during August primary (format for Nov 8)

At 8:00 PM on Elec Night (Aug 2), County released the results from 601,384 ballots -- early ballots received by Saturday before Tuesday Election Day.

That made up 69.4% of the eventual results.

Later Election Night...

1/6 Later Election Night, the County loaded all results of ballots voted in-person on Election Day.

Those ballots are fed into mini tabulators at the voting locations.

Once all voters leave the polls, the memory drives from the mini tabulators at the 210 voting locations...

2/6

🧵Hi Mark.

- ballots must have the appropriate formatting and security marks to be read by tabulator

- ballots be returned in a signed affidavit envelope. We don't accept loose ballots

- Affidavit envelopes have unique bar code that links to voter profile

Cont.

https://twitter.com/RealMarkFinchem/status/1584275267975249920

- Barcode allows us to track ballot

- Only one vote per voter profile

- To have a voter profile, you must register to vote.

- To register to vote, we must be able to confirm identity with the SSA or MVD

- To register to early vote, must have valid address

cont.

🧵Some election questions I've received:

Q: I overvoted one race; will that invalidate my whole ballot?

A: No. Only affects the one contest.

Q: Are you still hiring temporary election workers?

A: Yes. A few. GetInvolved.Maricopa.Vote

1/10 Q: Filled one oval, then rested pen in other oval and made a mark. Overvote?

A: If mark big enough to be read by tabulator, then overvote. If overvote, sent to adjudication board of 1R and 1D, and if can clearly determine the intent, then they will correct it.

2/10

The Arizona County Recorders (people who oversee early voting) OPPOSE Proposition 309.

It would:

- Address non-existent problem

- Impose new regulatory framework on voters

- Delay results

- Jeopardize personal data

- Disenfranchise thousands

recorder.maricopa.gov/site/pdf/AZRA%… Re Non-existent problem.

Supporters of Proposition 309 cannot identify a single instance of fraud that the measure would remedy. The very few instances of early ballot fraud that have occurred over the past 10 years have been committed by family members who...

🧵A blue night.

Let's start setting expectations now.

If voting patterns mirror Nov. 2020 and Aug. 2022, the initial results released in Maricopa County on Nov. 8 will be much bluer than the final results.

This is because the order in which ballots are tabulated.

Cont. The results released at 8:00 PM on Election Night will be comprised of early ballots we receive by the weekend before Election Day.

In Nov. 2020 and Aug. 2022, these were disproportionately Dem voters.

Cont.