Homeless in Arizona

Phoenix and other city elections are normally scheduled at the worse possible time to make sure that "normal voters" don't show up and allow the special interest groups, like the police unions and the firemen unions to swing the elections.

Normally city elections have the WORST turn out in percent of registered voters that actually show up and vote, while Presidential elections have the highest percentage of registered voters that come out and vote.

In most city government the cops get about 40% of the budget, and the firemen get the next 20% of the budget, giving the cops and firemen control of about 60% of most city government budgets. And the elected officials tend to worship those cops and firemen, because they can usually swing the election.

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My Turn: What elections officials can learn from Phoenix

Councilman: Arizona can avoid another embarrassing election debacle by looking at how Phoenix makes voting accessible.

The mismanagement of the presidential preference election that understandably infuriated voters and again embarrassed our state continues to reverberate in the community.

I am often asked what can be done to avoid a repeat of the episode. If they are willing, state and county elections officials can look to the Phoenix for best practices to avoid a repeat of this disaster.

Phoenix has a long history of making voting easy and convenient. The city was the first jurisdiction in the state to create a permanent early voting list and provide voters with the option to cast their ballot by mail, eliminating the need to stand in line on Election Day.

We've got 29 universal polling places

Even without all the facts laid bare, we can make a case for these 4 immediate reforms. They are devoid of partisan politics (the likes of whether everyone should be able to vote in preference elections, for instance) and, thus, a lot of hand-wringing. Getty Images

As most people work or attend school, voters aren’t necessarily close to home and in proximity to their assigned polling locations on Election Day. So Phoenix created a system of 29 universal polling places strategically located across the city, allowing voters to cast ballots at any one that is most convenient, not just on Election Day, but on the Saturday and Monday before as well.

All polling stations are connected to a central system. This allows voters who received but did not return an early ballot to vote a regular ballot instead of a provisional ballot. This will significantly reduce the number of provisional ballots cast. County election officials said the abundance of provisional ballots contributed to the chaos of the presidential primary. Phoenix has drastically reduced this trouble in all city elections.

These features have made Phoenix elections convenient and absent of controversy.

Every voter needs an automatic mail-in ballot

Phoenix can do more, and I have put forward a plan to do just that. I have proposed that all Phoenix voters automatically receive a ballot in the mail before Election Day for every single city election. The City Clerk's Office estimates the cost to mail out the additional ballots at about $200,000 for a citywide election, not including costs to process the returned ballots. It'd be money well invested to encourage and smooth the path for greater participation in voting..

Voters will be able to complete their ballots and mail them in, or drop them off at one of the universal polling places that remain open for three days. For those voters who still prefer the tradition of casting their ballot at a polling location, that option will remain available.

Just like the other voting efficiencies Phoenix has instituted, the creation of a vote-by-mail list that includes all voters will, unfortunately, apply only to Phoenix elections.

Statewide and national elections, conducted by the Arizona Secretary of State's Office and the Maricopa County Elections Office, will continue to require voters to cast ballots at their assigned polling location unless they request a mail-in ballot.

Why do they want to make voting harder?

Can state and county officials create a similar program to Phoenix's and distribute mail-in ballots to ALL voters for ALL elections across the state? They certainly can. But I am not optimistic.

Far too many officials, particularly at the state level, have a track record of making voting more difficult to gain a partisan advantage. They will hide behind the excuse of cost. You’ll recall that Maricopa County election officials testified before the primary debacle that they were seeking to conduct that election as “cheaply” as possible. That they did, and the results showed.

I don’t believe you can put a price tag on democracy. That is why, with the Phoenix budget process for the coming year underway, I am advocating for funding for this next step to make our election process even easier and more convenient, and most importantly, beyond reproach.

Phoenix City Councilman Daniel Valenzuela represents District 5, which includes west and central Phoenix. Email him at council.district.5@phoenix.gov; follow him on Twitter, ‎@dtvalenzuelaphx.