https://eu.azcentral.com/story/news/loc ... 100391322/
Reynaldo "Rey" Valenzuela, a 26-year veteran of the department, becomes the permanent director after filling in since January.
Rebekah L. Sanders | The Republic | azcentral.com
The Maricopa County Recorder's Office has appointed a new elections director, the latest top post named by Recorder Adrian Fontes as he remakes the agency.
Reynaldo "Rey" Valenzuela, a 26-year veteran of the Maricopa County Elections Department, now will be the permanent director after filling in since January, when former Elections Director Karen Osborne retired.
The county reviewed about 60 applications from across the country, said Fontes, who was elected in November.
"Rey was simply the most qualified person for the job," Fontes told The Arizona Republic. "He's the cream of the crop. He'll be able to make the decisions that we need in Maricopa County to fix some of the circumstances that happened in the past."
Fontes, a Democrat, won office after promising to shake up the elections department to avoid mistakes such as the 2016 presidential-preference election, when a drastic cut to polling places resulted in hours-long lines, angering voters.
Valenzuela was assistant elections director at the time but did not come up with the failed plan, Fontes said.
"In my review, Rey and several of the other folks disagreed with that decision (to reduce polling places) very early on," Fontes said. "I'm very confident he would not make those decisions. The folks who made those decisions are gone."
Valenzuela started in Phoenix's elections department on summer breaks from Arizona State University, and he joined the Maricopa County Elections Department in 1990.
"I look forward to continuing to work with Fontes in making Maricopa County Elections Department the model to emulate for other counties, states and even nations," Valenzuela said in a written statement. "Now on to the mission of making sure every voice is heard through the sound of the vote."
The appointment changes the bipartisan power balance once maintained by the agency.
The previous recorder, Republican Helen Purcell, served with a Democratic elections director.
However, Valenzuela, like Fontes, is a Democrat. A spokeswoman for the department said Valenzuela's partisan affiliation was not a consideration in his hiring.
Valenzuela is a Certified Elections/Registration Administrator, secretary of state-certified election officer and graduate of the Maricopa County Management Institute. He has served as an Arizona representative on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission standards board for six years.
