The following is an original production of AZPM News.

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There's one month to go before Arizona voters get to cast early ballots for the general election.

We'll talk about the November vote with the Pima County Recorder.

And our panel will discuss a showdown between border wall builders and the Tohono O'odham Nation.

The Press Room starts now.

Hello and welcome to the Press Room.

I'm Tony Perkins.

Gabriella Cázares-Kelly is Pima County's elected official overseeing mail-in ballots.

With vote-by-mail under fire at a federal level, what does that mean for elections locally?

Gabriella, thank you and welcome to The Press Room.

Thank you for having me.

One of the things that we're hearing about in the news is voting by mail and a specific target by the Trump administration.

Now, the administration has told the U.S.

Postal Service recently to put new electronic-based restrictions on mail-in voting.

The courts told the Postal Service to stop developing the restrictions and the USPS refused.

And that puts election officials like yourself in a big bind.

That's accurate.

Yeah.

We are struggling to find out what the requirements are at this point.

So Pima County is voluntarily participating in three of the measures that are listed in the executive order.

We are sending unique barcodes on all of our outbound mail, unique barcodes on our return ballot return envelopes.

And we are also going through the USPS ballot design analysis.

The fourth, however, is a ballot portal that is mentioned by the USPS, which we do not have yet any information.

So apparently it doesn't exist.

We have not had access to it.

We have no logins.

We have not done any testing.

And we also don't know how mail that is outside of those unique barcodes, such as address confidentiality voters or voters who receive a braille ballot or large print or other categories such as those.

Now this news has gone on to the federal level.

A whistleblower came forward and told members of Congress that this is an issue that's going to affect everybody, not just in Arizona, but all across the country.

And that brings again the question of how reliable our election is going to be this year.

Right now, as it stands, as of today, and I really want to emphasize that things have been changing very quickly, even as we are in meetings with the Secretary of State's office or attorney general's and all of the recorders statewide.

We are sometimes getting updates in the middle of the updates.

And so things are changing very quickly.

But for now, it's really important to know that all election officers in the state are preparing for an election as usual.

We're on schedule and on time to bring forward a safe and secure election as usual.

And we're really racing against the clock to ensure that there are no major changes before ballots go out.

All right.

Let's go to some of the other top issues regarding elections.

And one of those is election security.

And that's made a lot of news, of course, not just in the past few weeks, but the last couple of years.

An audit of the 2020 general election in Arizona delivered no evidence of fraud and that mail-in ballots are secure, for example.

But in a recent ruling, the U.S.

Supreme Court's majority suggests that there is something wrong with our election system.

And so going into this November general election, how can confidence be restored in our election system?

I think my office in particular, the Pima County Recorder's Office, we have done so much to provide transparency to the voters.

If you visit our website, you can even take a look at our training materials.

There are reports that we are voluntarily putting up on our website.

It is such a safe and secure process.

It is convenient.

And there are these allegations that continue to come out about concerns about election voting.

They're unfounded.

These are conspiracy theories that don't make sense.

All right.

Let's talk a little bit about voter registration.

And you have some strong feelings about voting rights.

You said on your website that you backed same-day voter registration and restoring voting rights, for example, who have felonies.

In Arizona, you have 29 days, generally a month, before the election to register to vote.

And if you've been convicted of a felony offense, you have the right to vote suspended.

And if you're a first-time offender, you get that right restored.

Is that correct?

Correct.

And once you've completed your sentence.

My question for you is, why are these important rights to fight for?

Same-day voter registration, that's such an important process.

In other states, they're already doing this.

The 29-day limitation had to do with paper voter registration rolls.

This had to do with literally the physical printing of rolls, which we no longer do.

Now that we have increased the technology and the ability for a person to register to vote closer to election day or on election day, it would simply be a provisional ballot.

It would simply be a way for us to receive information about the voter, to register that voter in the same way that we do for any other voter who had submitted their voter registration beforehand.

But we run into so many people who are in the middle of changes.

Maybe they move.

Maybe a veteran who has served in a war, who comes in and has missed the deadline by a day.

We are constantly interacting with the general public who are reminding us that we have this needless requirement that we now have the technology to be able to move forward with.

We have the ability to now offer same-day voter registration and it would be a benefit to the general public.

And there's also an issue about voter identification.

So the ID verify is a way for voters, typically voters who are returning what we call a late early ballot.

So that ballot is already late.

For those voters who are dropping them off as soon as they receive them or in the early weeks of the election, early voting time period, those voters are doing great.

The voters who are needing to use the voter ID, what we call the ID verify, are voters who are returning their ballot later than they should.

And so rather than having them wait, they will then show their identification, submit their ballot, and it will stay with the Elections Department who facilitates Election Day.

This is a way to bypass the signature verification requirement, which is also a way that we are identifying voters.

This is their identification, is a signature.

And so either way, we instituted this in the last cycle in the primary election and we saw a minimal.

I think it'll be most significan for a county as big as Maricopa, but for Pima County, it's about a 50-50.

We always do encourage voters to return their ballots as early as possible and not wait until Election Day, because if they would like to see their vote included in the results that come out on Election Night, those are all early ballots.

None of those are from Election Day.

Vote centers close at 7 p.m.

And if there's a voter in line, they are still able to stay, and that location is there until the last voter leaves.

They then have to close out.

They have to audit all of their documents and close the location and then drive that over to either to the ballot processing center, where those ballots will then be prepared for tabulation, or to a central area where they drop everything off and then it gets driven over.

Election results come out at 8 o'clock.

So for the very first time, the Elections Department who has been processi those ballots and tabulating, they tabulate without generating a report, and so the results come out at 8 o'clock.

So if you dropped off your ballot on Election Day, your ballot is still waiting to even make it to the ballot processing center.

It is not part of those numbers, and in fact, will not be processed until the next business day.

All right.

It sounds very complicated for the people who work for you and work in your office.

And one of the things for voters to know is the series of deadlines that are coming up over the next few weeks.

It's on your website, but can we go over some of those deadlines right now?

Sure.

As you said, the ballots should be coming in the mail for people in the next two weeks or a little bit over two weeks.

In 34 days.

October 5th is the voter registration deadline.

So if a voter needs to make a change, they are generally okay.

At this point, changing your political party won't make a difference because everyone will be receiving the same ballot with the same races.

For voters who are changing their address, they should do that as soon as possible because prior to the election, Pima County, we're mailing half a million ballots.

That means our printer has been working on our mailings for weeks.

And once the ballot design is finalized, they get assembled and they are sitting shrink wrapped in a secure area ready for trucks.

There can be 30 or so pallets of ballots at one time.

And so if someone makes their change to their voter registration too close to an election, they might receive a ballot at the wrong location.

So it's very important to make that change as soon as possible.

However, if you are experiencing a situation where you're moving in a few days and you're already registered, there are options for you.

You could also show up to vote in person early or tell us a temporary address where we can send your ballot.

For anybody who is out of state, we can send a ballot pretty much anywhere.

And even if we have somebody who is out of the country, there is an option for you.

We have an ability to send a ballot anywhere in the world.

And I believe in Arizona, Maricopa has even sent a ballot to space.

And I say anywhere.

I really mean anywhere.

And overall, once again, it's very complicated two months ahead for your office.

Labor Day is the time, or the weekend, is the time when the political campaigns go into full swing and the candidates have their schedules.

But for your workers, it's a tough schedule too.

Yes, it has been a very busy year.

This will be our third election for the year.

Of course, we had the Regional Transportation Authority countywide election.

We had the primary, which is a federal election and causes a lot of confusion because voters who are no-party designated, who often refer to themselves as independent, they do not automatically receive a ballot and it causes some confusion.

So that one's a big lift.

And then now the general election, which more people tend to be interested in.

We have several big races on the ballot.

We have the governor's race.

We have the lieutenant governor for the very first time in Arizona.

We have Secretary of State Corporation Commission, very, very big, important races on the ballot this cycle.

All right.

So much we could talk about with the election coming up.

But I appreciate your time with us today.

Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly, we really appreciate you being on The Press Room.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

We'll be back with our panel of journalists right after this.

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And thank you.

Joining me now to discuss some of the week's major headlines are Angela Gervasi from AZPM News, independent journalist Susan Barnett and Jim Nintzel of the Tucson Sentinel.

We're going to start talking about the latest shooting in Tucson.

It ended with three people dead earlier this week, including the shooter.

It happened outside the Venture-N, a gay bar on North 6th Avenue.

Police confirmed that it's being investigated as a possible hate crime.

Susan, one thing that's troublin about this is that the shooter was carrying a note that listed other LGBTQ locations in Tucson.

Yes.

And upon further investigat through a search warrant of his home, they also found another note that seems to say that it was because of anti-LGBTQ sentiments that he had.

What we know about him is he's new to Tucson.

His name is Ousman Ceesay.

But more importantly, I want to talk about the victims who are Cameron Davis Capara and Vincent Anthony Siqueiros, who were outside of the bar that Monday morning, Sunday to Monday, 12:30 in the morning on Monday.

And according to reports from people that were there, they heard 10 shots.

And as we know now, the victims were Cameron and Vincent.

And the shooter later turned the gun on himself.

He was taken to a local hospital where he passed away from his injuries there.

And from what we have heard from the community, these were lights.

I've heard both Vincent and Cameron be described as a light.

Cameron, through his movement, journalism, his photography, he was at a lot of protests covering, taking pictures of people and just the movements here of activism.

And Vincent was known to be just a fixture at Venture-N.

The bar was known as a place where people come and their regulars there.

And so there's a lot of pain and a lot of anger and fear and loss in the community.

I spoke to a business owner who is, she identifies as queer, and she said, "This is scary.

We don't know the names that were or the businesses that were listed."

But it made her afraid that she might be targeted.

And so I've heard a lot of that, but I've also heard a lot of people saying, you know, "We need to come together as a community now and continue to talk about this and continue to make sure that something is done so that things in the future are different."

Difficult situation on many levels for the city of Tucson.

For sure.

And I think it's just another example of how gun violence is out of control in our community, as well as an animus against the LGBTQ community.

I was heartened by the way the community reacted, the vigil this week that brought out so many people to mourn the victims of this crime, I think was a really, a heart-fought moment for our community.

Now let's move over to the border and a showdown at the border with the, at the Tohono O'odham Nation.

Angela, the tribal police were stopped from using trespassing, issuing trespassing citations against the border wall construc workers and it happened on tribal property.

Almost two dozen members of the Border Patrol got involved in this whole thing.

What happened?

Yeah, so I think the timing of it is so interesting.

I was at Quitobaquito Springs on Monday where Tohono O'odham chairman Verlon Jose told media that afternoon that he was prepared to issue citations for contractors entering the nation.

And it was less than 24 hours later that about 20 agents wearing masks and they were armed entered the Tohono O'odham Nation.

They also brought something called a BORTAC Unit, which is a sort of SWAT team that's typically reserved for high emergency, urgent situations.

They arrived on the nation and began, they were escorting contractors to begin pre-construction activities.

And they, the Tohono O'odham Nation sort of describes it as they basically barricaded these border patrol vehicles so that tribal police couldn't really approach the situation.

So it's been really interesting to watch that play out because there's also an ongoing federal lawsuit against this very construction.

Although a federal judge denied an attempt from the nation to get a preliminary injunction to pause the construction.

And really quickly, you were able to get an aerial view of action at the border.

What have you been able to see from your trip earlier this week from the air?

Yeah, it was a very small plane that fits about three people.

And we flew over the nation where you can see, there are many parts of the nation where it's just vehicle barriers that are about maybe waist-high.

You're not seeing that 30-foot tall bollard fence that is present in so many other parts of the border.

We flew west of the nation over Quitobaquito Springs in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

And you could see bulldozers on either side of the springs, not immediately close to the springs, but kind of just working on both sides.

And there was also Russ McSpadde with the Center for Biological Diversity who sort of gave us the heads up on this.

And he was on the ground and he said the bulldozers were about 0.7 miles east of Quitobaquito.

So CBP has yet to answer questions for me about the timeline on this, but it does feel very imminent that they are approaching this very sacred spring.

Very interesting.

Now, a new report shows that migrant deaths on the Arizona-Sonora borderlands have hit a new record.

Susan, it is a grim reminder that there is a human side to the immigration dispute happening there.

Yes, so Humane Borders releases this report every summer around this time to talk about the deaths that are happening in the borderlands.

And what he said to me is that it's not looking any different than previous years, despite promises to close the border and all this border construction that's happening.

Last year around this time, they reported 59 deaths or 59 remains found.

And this year, right now, it's up to 73.

And since they started recording in 2001, it's hit the new record of 4,500 remains found.

And these, of course, are only the remains of people that are found.

This is not counting the people that are not found.

And, you know, speaking about constructing the border wall, something that the director, executive director of Humane Borders, Octavio Fuentes, told me is that this is part of their prevention through deterrence policy, which makes it so that people that are trying to get into the United States have to go through the most remote and often dangerous parts of the desert to cross, which obviously makes it harder and more likely for death.

It's a more perilous journey.

And so with this border wall that we have in Quitobaquito Springs and also in Lochiel, where we have activists also preventing the construction of the border wall there, the construction of the wall is part of the smart wall.

Yeah, and that's a double border wall, 30 feet high, includes surveillance, camera technology.

So all these things are only going to make it harder for people that are trying to come in.

And another thing that Octavio told me is that making it harder for people is not going to deter people from coming.

They're still going to try and come, but now it's going to make it so that possibly there are more deaths in the desert.

Jim, the immigration issue and the border issue combined sort of a little bit under the radar for several weeks, but now sort of exploded back to the surface cause of these incidents.

For sure.

It seems as though the Trump administration is not thinking too much about the tribal objections to having this wall built on their land and certainly this extremely delicate environmental spot with the spring.

It just seems astonishing that they are not taking that into effect and are actually sending armed people onto the reservatio as Angela told us, to try to prevent any sort of action by the tribes to control their sovereign territory.

And again, like you said, it's sovereign territory and it sort of brings about a kind of a crisis as far as what the state can do or what the responsibilities for the federal government are.

The more that this gets drawn out through these selection seasons, it's going to make a difference in what's being said about it.

I think so.

I think affordabilit is more on the top of people's minds right now.

The healthcare, losing their healthcare insurance, some of these kitchen table issues, but immigration is always buzzing along as an issue here in southern Arizona.

All right.

Let me give you all an opportunity again to talk about what stories you may be looking at, head to in the next few weeks.

Angela, let's start with you.

I'll be working on a story about the 25th anniversary of 9-11, as told by Nogales residents, because that was a really consequential day for people who live on the US-Mexico border.

It sort of marked the beginning of a lot of border militarization we've seen over the past two and a half decades.

I've talked so far to an 81-year-old Nogales resident and then a 40-year-old Nogales resident who's become a historian.

It's interesting to see what memories people have of that day, of the border, of the ports, and of the fear there.

Susan?

Well, I will be continuing to provide coverage about the Venture-N shooting for Lookout News.

They're really trying to attack it from all different angles in covering the story.

There's a news outlet that covers specifically just queer issues in Arizona.

So I think continuing that coverage, making sure that that conversation continues is very important.

Other than that, I'll be covering CD6 elections and Spanish language elections as well.

And Jim, how about you?

It's Labor Day, so the campaigns are getting underway fast and furious.

We're going to be looking at some of the key races in Southern Arizona, including congressional District 6, as well as the legislative District 17 race, where the Democrats are trying to grab a couple of seats and see if they can flip the balance of power at the Arizona Legislature.

All right.

Definitely a time of transition politically.

That'll do it for The Press Room.

Thanks for being with us.

We'll see you next week.

(dramatic music) Support comes from Banner Health, a nonprofit healthcare system with an integrative health plan committed to giving back to Arizona.

Last year, Banner reinvested $1.1 billion into the Arizona community.

Learn more at bannerhealth.com.

This has been an original production of AZPM News.