Attorney General Mark Brnovich hired a special investigator Thursday to determine if Secretary of State Michele Reagan broke any laws in the just-wrapped special election.



Michael Morrissey, a former federal prosecutor, will review the failure of Reagan's office to ensure that pamphlets describing the issues on the May 17 ballot were delivered to the homes of all registered voters before the early ballots went out. That should have happened by April 20.



Reagan does not dispute that at least 200,000 of the 1.9 million pamphlets were not mailed on time. And each of those was to a home with more than one registered voter, meaning at least 400,000 people may not have had the descriptions in hand before they had to vote.



But she said the blame lies with others, including a contractor and a consultant.



In his appointment of Morrissey, Brnovich wants to know exactly what went wrong and why. And he wants Morrissey to determine whether any criminal or civil laws were broken.



The attorney general is also interested in the delay between the time Reagan discovered her office had not complied with the law and actually disclosing that. He wants Morrissey to take a closer look at "any undue delay in remediating and publicly disclosing the failure to voters and county election officials."



Brnovich has promised Morrissey complete independence, saying no one from his office will direct or control the inquiry. And he essentially empowered Morrissey with the same abilities as any other prosecutor in the office.



"It is understood that you may speak to anyone you deem appropriate to gather facts in relation to the inquiry," Brnovich wrote to Morrissey.



Morrissey was not given a deadline. But an AG spokesman said Brnovich is hoping for some quick answer since the August 30 primary is less than 90 days away.



"We'll welcome any inquiry or investigation," said Reagan spokesman Matt Roberts. "And we look forward to visiting with Mr. Morrissey."