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A search of Walter Alphonso Jamel Ringfield Jr.’s last name on the Maricopa County Superior Court website in May 2024 should have revealed he had been charged with theft eight months earlier.
But a Maricopa County vendor conducting background checks on hundreds of temporary election workers searched his name as “Jamel Ringfield, Walter Alphonso” according to his county employee file, which was included in a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office investigative report obtained by Votebeat through a public records request.
The report shows no records were found with that version of his name.
Ringfield, now 29, was hired. He was employed for fewer than 30 days in June 2024 when a surveillance camera captured him swiping a security fob used to access ballot tabulation machines and keys from a work station in the tabulation room of the Maricopa County Elections Department, according to the report and what officials said at the time.
Officials reported the theft to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, which investigated. On March 5, Ringfield pleaded guilty to attempted computer tampering, and a Superior Court judge sentenced him to three years of probation and six months in jail, according to court documents. He has since been released, records show. He did not respond to a request for comment.
Since the incident, the county has faced questions about how it screens temporary election workers. It included a review of hiring practices of temporary employees as part of a comprehensive audit of its election processes that is underway.
Jason Berry, Maricopa County director of communications, in a Nov. 21 email said the county is limited in the information it can provide about a human resources matter. But “the name used for Mr. Ringfield’s background check did not match the court’s database and, therefore, did not produce his court-ordered diversion record,” Berry said. “We’ve had extensive conversations with our background check vendor and have identified steps to prevent this anomaly from happening again.”
Berry said he could not elaborate on those specific steps, though he did confirm that since April, the county has required two reference checks for every temporary employee who works in the ballot tabulation center. In a subsequent email, he said the name was searched as Ringfield had provided it, and “that information is used to run the criminal background check.”
AccuSourceHR said in an emailed statement that it had “reviewed the background screening process for this individual and determined proper procedures were followed and no error was made in the processing of this report.” A representative for the company did not respond to follow-up questions.
Maricopa County needs thousands of temporary workers for elections
Every two years, Maricopa County hires 3,000 to 4,000 temporary employees to help with the primary and general elections, most of whom are poll workers, but 500 to 600 work inside the Tabulation and Election Center, Elections Department spokeswoman Jennifer Liewer said.
There are an assortment of temporary jobs such as working in the mailroom, operating tabulation machines, warehouse drivers, technology technicians, ballot couriers, and serving on bipartisan teams to adjudicate ballots the tabulator could not read.
Many of the temporary employees have returned for years, and temps can eventually gain permanent employment with elections or other county departments, Liewer said.
Each of these temporary employees undergoes a background check.
AccuSourceHR’s one-page report on Ringfield, included with the investigative report from the sheriff’s office, shows the vendor did a county criminal records search and a state criminal court search on the name “Jamel Ringfield, Walter Alphonso,” and also under a second name, Alphonso Sundevil, as well as by date of birth.
The results of all the searches were “No Reportable Records Found,” according to the report.
According to court records, Ringfield was a cashier at a grocery store chain when he stole $1,800 from his drawer on Sept. 30, 2023.
Ringfield’s county employee file does not list that employer, but it says he was self-employed beginning May 1, 2022, and his responsibilities and accomplishments in that time were “Getting a job.”
The Maricopa County Superior Court docket shows prosecutors filed the theft charge against Ringfield on Oct. 3, 2023, and the prosecution was suspended about five weeks later so Ringfield could enter a two-year diversion program, and he was not convicted at that time.
Ringfield’s court record would not have automatically disqualified him from county employment if the county had known about it. Maricopa County is a “second chance employer,” so it is up to department heads to decide whether to hire on a case-by-case basis, Berry said.
County elections audit will examine hiring and training of temporary employees
Liewer said the Elections Department must strike a balance between the need for election security and being properly staffed.
“How do you achieve both of those goals is one of the things we’re constantly striving to improve and reach with every election that we do,” Liewer said in an October interview.
Liewer said the department doesn’t allow any temporary worker to be in the tabulation room, which is under constant surveillance, without a full-time staff member.
The comprehensive elections audit, by the firm BerryDunn, is also supposed to look at the hiring and training of temporary employees, according to the request for proposal and a June 25 press release. The press release said the review will examine the processes for chain of custody, physical security, candidate filing compliance, ballot drop boxes, and vote center selection and setup.
BerryDunn has a one-year contract, and the county expects to have some findings to share next year, Berry said.
Contact Votebeat at az.tips@votebeat.org.
