11 Nov 14th-Nov 20th, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Former state Rep. Walt Blackman, a Republican, sponsored the bill that created the new category of “undesignated offense.” (Gage Skidmore/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0) registered to vote or attempted to register after their convictions. Citing the crush of election-related requests leading up to Nov. 5, the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office said it had not been able to crosscheck their names with its records. But at least two of those 32 — including Kelly — have received cancellation notices from the recorder’s office. New Times has not been able to examine felony convictions reports sent to the Secretary of State prior to September. Similarly, New Times has not been able to check the records of Arizona’s other 14 county clerks of court. But for however many citizens are impacted, the process of correcting the issue almost certainly will last beyond Election Day. They had to sit this one out. What’s an undesignated offense? The category of undesignated offense was created precisely to preclude the kind of legal hurdles Kelly and other disenfran- chised voters now face. Prior to July 2022, the justice system worked a bit differently. First-time offenders who committed certain nondan- gerous, nonrepetitive offenses could be charged with class 6 felonies, the lowest level of felony. Upon completion of proba- tion, those charges could be knocked down to class 1 misdemeanors. But that system saddled low-level offenders with a felony conviction on their records for months or longer. If they applied for a job or for an apart- ment during probation, they’d have to disclose their felony convictions — even if those felonies would soon be wiped from their records. When their probation ended, they would have to formally request the court change their offense to a misde- meanor, a step that Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice board member Armando Nava said many offenders didn’t realize they had to take. “A lot of clients thought it was auto- matic. They’d complete probation, and they’d think, ‘Great, now I have a misde- meanor.’ But it’s not,” Nava said. “They still would have to request it. Years would go by, and they’d still be treated as if they had a felony.” Nava and AACJ began advocating for a fix. In 2021, former Republican state Rep. Walt Blackman sponsored a solution in House Bill 2162. The bill essentially reversed the order of the probation process. Instead of burdening offenders with a felony that eventually could be knocked down to a misdemeanor, the bill allowed prosecutors to offer the charge of “undesignated offense.” That means what it says: At the time of conviction, the offense has not yet been designated a felony or a misdemeanor. Only after probation is served and all fines are paid does the court lock it in as one or the other. In the interim, the conviction is considered a misdemeanor, except in six specific circumstances. As outlined in ARS 13-604, those include the loss of gun rights and being subjected to DNA collection. Voting rights are not mentioned. HB 2162 passed through the state legis- lature with near-unanimous support and was signed into law by Ducey in April 2021. It went into effect in 2022. Nava said that since then, “it’s materi- ally better.” Clients who plead to undesig- nated offenses face fewer barriers to getting jobs and housing while they complete probation. “That was a big impediment to a lot of people,” he said. Before speaking to New Times, Nava had not heard of people with undesignated offenses losing their voting rights. He has had other clients plead to undesignated offenses who have not had their registra- tion canceled. After reviewing Kelly’s plea documents and sentencing order, he agreed that “nothing about what I’m looking at … would suggest that she should have that revoked. “To me, it reeks more of a court fuck- up,” he said, “which sadly is common.” How did this happen? A court fuck-up is exactly what it is. According to Maricopa County Superior Court spokesperson Vincent Funari, the problem stems from codes entered into the court’s case management database, which the clerk of court uses to create its felony convictions report. Defendants convicted of class 6 >> p 12 Sloppy Screw-up from p 10
