Hale survives Supreme Court candidacy challenge

CHINLE, July 10, 2008

Incumbent state Sen. Albert Hale's name will be on the District 2 ballot this November, in spite of his Republican opponent's challenge to his filing petition.

The Arizona Supreme Court Tuesday upheld a lower court decision that post office boxes are valid addresses on a filing petition.

But Hale's opponent, Royce Jenkins of Kykotsmovi, Ariz., says the court - as well as the media - missed the bigger picture.

"The media has made this all about the P.O. boxes, but it's not about the P.O. boxes," Jenkins said in a telephone interview from his office at Hopi tribal headquarters in Kykotsmovi, where he works as the tribe's economic development director.

"The issue is every county recorder is doing their own thing and there's no consistency" in how signatures on filing petitions are counted, Jenkins said.

"We looked at Mr. Hale's petition, and he had people who weren't registered in his district, people who weren't registered at all, even a few signatures from out of state," Jenkins said.

"It's outrageous that my opponent can collect signatures without even asking people where they're from and get away with it," he said. "I'm deeply disappointed in the process, and in the Supreme Court's decision."

Hale did not return an e-mail request for comment Tuesday.

Jenkins also said he was upset that Mary Kim Titla, San Carlos Apache, called a press conference on the challenge of three Navajo candidates' petitions - Hale, state Rep. Albert Tom, and House candidate Christopher Deschene - in which she accused their challengers of trying to disenfranchise Native Americans.

"The media has made this into a big racial issue, and it has nothing to do with race," Jenkins said. "I'm full-blooded Hopi and my wife is full-blooded Navajo.

"It's true many people on the reservations don't have street addresses. It's also true many non-Natives in rural Arizona don't have street addresses. It's an issue we need to settle. In the meantime, if I can play by the book, so can Mr. Hale," he said.

Jenkins suggested one way the signature verification dilemma could be resolved is to have signers write down their voter registration numbers instead of addresses.

"When I'm elected, I intend to do something about this," he declared.

Titla, a Democratic candidate in Congressional District 1, applauded the Arizona high court's decision to keep Hale on the Sept. 2 primary ballot.

"This is a victory for Arizonans who depend on post office boxes for an address," Titla said. "Hale had enough signatures from registered voters, and that is what matters. We must stop making it more difficult for rural Arizonans to be counted. If it's good enough for the tax collectors, it's good enough for the ballot counters."

Albert Tom, meanwhile, has voluntarily conceded his race, saying that too many of the signatures on his nominating petition turned out to be invalid for reasons other than having a post office box address.

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