Conservatives Fear Arizona House Committee Shakeup Could Stymie Election Integrity Bills
'You cannot 'Make America Great Again' without securing our elections,' said Merissa Hamilton.'You cannot 'Make America Great Again' without securing our elections,' said Merissa Hamilton.Not Tired Of Winning, Trump Captures Arizona’s 11 Electoral Votes
Former President Donald Trump is projected to win Arizona’s 11 electoral votes, flipping a state President Joe Biden won during the 2020 contest. The call was made Saturday night by the Associated Press and other legacy media outlets. With 87 percent of votes tabulated, preliminary results show Trump with 52.6 percent of the vote, compared […]The Battle For Arizona’s Legislature Is A Choice Between Freedom And Left-Wing Tyranny
'Your whole ballot in Arizona literally determines the destiny of our state this year,' said Merissa Hamilton.Fontes, GOP Ask AZ Supreme Court To Allow 100K Electors To Vote Full-Ballot Following Registration ‘Error’
Adrian Fontes and GOPers are asking Arizona's high court to address a state error putting 100K voters' registration statuses in jeopardy.Lawsuit: Gov. Hobbs Illegally Designated Arizona Agencies As Voter Registration, Ballot Drop-Off Sites
Plaintiffs requested the Arizona Supreme Court to declare the orders unconstitutional and prohibit Hobbs from enforcing them.Republicans Ask SCOTUS To Greenlight Arizona’s Proof Of Citizenship Requirement For Voter Registration
National and Arizona Republicans are formally requesting the Supreme Court allow a state law go into effect that would reject state voter registrations in which the applicant does not provide proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in state elections. The motion also asks the high court to permit Arizona to require such proof […]Arizona GOP chairman raises an alarming question after resigning over secret recording, bribery allegation
Arizona Republican Party Chairman Jeff DeWit resigned on Wednesday over growing controversy involving Kari Lake, a secret recording, and an alleged bribe.
In the explosive recording published on Tuesday, DeWit tells Lake there are "very powerful people" who are willing to pay her not to run for the U.S. Senate in 2024. Throughout the recording, DeWit speaks in vague terms, but at one point he makes the request clear: DeWit tells Lake that powerful people "back east" have requested that he ask her if she can pause her political plans for a sum of money.
Lake, however, repeatedly protests and insists that she will never be "bought" — not even for a billion dollars — because it's "immoral."
— (@)
In a statement announcing his resignation, DeWit accused Lake of releasing a "selectively edited" 10-minute recording of a private conversation that took place at Lake's home nearly a year ago.
"I said things I regret, but I realize when hearing Lake's recording that I was set up," DeWit alleged. "I believe she orchestrated this entire situation to have control over the state party, and it is obvious from the recording that she crafted her performance responses with the knowledge that she was recording it, intending to use this recording later to portray herself as a hero in her own story."
DeWit explained that, earlier on Wednesday, he was "determined to fight" for his job. But he changed his mind when Lake's team allegedly threatened him.
"[A] few hours ago, I received an ultimatum from Lake's team: resign today or face the release of a new, more damaging recording," he alleged. "I am truly unsure of its contents, but considering our numerous past open conversations as friends, I have decided not to take the risk."
The admission raises an alarming question: Given that he was already accused of trying to bribe Lake on behalf of an unknown group of power brokers, what could Lake possibly have recorded that is "more damaging" than that?
Lake's team, on the other hand, denied threatening DeWit.
"No one from the Kari Lake campaign threatened or blackmailed DeWit," they said in a statement. "It is unfortunate that Dewit hasn’t recognized how unethical his behavior was and still hasn’t apologized to Arizona Republicans. DeWit’s false claims are just par for the course. The Arizona GOP must be relieved to have his resignation. Now we can focus on getting ethical leadership and win big in 2024."
Still, more questions remain: If the tape is as damaging as it appears to be, why did Lake wait nearly a year to release it? And, naturally: How many other recordings does Lake have?
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Arizona Republicans advance election bill to end mail-in voting — but it's likely dead on arrival
Republican lawmakers in Arizona are attempting to resurrect a controversial election bill that would eliminate nearly all forms of early voting and require ballots to be counted by hand.
State Rep. John Fillmore, who sponsored the legislation, has said he wants to "get back to 1958-style voting." His bill would end early or absentee voting except for voters who have a disability or expect to be out of state on Election Day. It would require voters to show up at a local precinct polling place to vote, and each location would be restricted to serve a maximum of 1,500 registered voters. The proposal requires votes to be counted by hand and the results reported within 24 hours.
This bill and others like it are supported by Republicans and activists who claim that 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. Democrats say the measure would suppress the minority vote and are accusing Republicans carrying that intention.
The state Senate Government Committee advanced the bill in a party-line vote of 4-3 Monday, but according to the Associated Press, the bill is expected to fail if brought before the full Senate or in the state House. An identical bill was defeated earlier this year when state House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) assigned it to every House committee, ensuring that it would never reach the floor for a vote.
Even supporters of the bill acknowledge there is an uphill battle to end mail-in voting in Arizona, a state where more than 80% of voters cast their ballots by mail.
State Sen. J.D. Mesnard (R), who supports returning to near-universal in-person voting, told the Associated Press that a bill passed by the Legislature can become a ballot referendum if supporters or critics collect enough signatures.
“If that were to happen here, it would go to the ballot and you have 85% of folks casting a mail in ballot on whether they get to continue casting mail-in ballot,” Mesnard said. “We have our work cut out for us.”
Still, Arizona Republican efforts to revisit the results of the 2020 election continue. State Sen. Kelly Townsend (R) said she intends to issue a new subpoena to Maricopa County for records related to the presidential election. She asserts the county has not sufficiently cooperated with requests for records from Attorney General Mark Brnovich.
Brnovich is a candidate for U.S. Senate running in the GOP primary to challenge Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).
In the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election, Republicans subpoenaed Maricopa County for ballots, voting machines, and data. Those materials were cited in a "forensic audit" of the election conducted by supporters of former President Donald Trump on behalf of Senate GOP leaders that failed to show Trump's loss was illegitimate.
Government Committee Republicans also voted to advance a bill that would require drop boxes to be monitored by an election worker or a security camera, the Associated Press reports.
Arizona election audit report delayed after 3 members of Cyber Ninjas team contract COVID-19
A draft report on the election audit in Maricopa County, Arizona, which was due Monday, was delayed after members of the cyber security firm hired to conduct the audit got sick with COVID-19.
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann (R) said Monday that only "a portion of the draft report" would be delivered on time because three members of the Cyber Ninjas audit team hired by the Senate had come down with COVID-19 and are "quite sick." She even suggested that some of the auditors were hospitalized.
"Today we are receiving a portion of the draft report from the election audit analysis team," she said in a statement. "The team expected to have the full draft ready for the Senate today, but unfortunately Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan and two other members of the five-person audit team have tested positive for COVID-19 and are quite sick."
So your laughing because people are extremely ill with Covid and in the hospital ? https://t.co/ftODD6vGsF
— Karen Fann (@FannKfann) 1629760759.0
Fann also indicated that the draft report may be further delayed because the Senate only just received images of the ballot envelopes from Maricopa County last Thursday, and those images will need to be analyzed "as soon as possible to incorporate those results in the final report."
The Senate will begin reviewing a portion of the draft report on Wednesday.
The audit report is highly anticipated by former President Donald Trump and supporters who believe his claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent. Despite no irregularities found in other reviews of Maricopa County's 2020 election, they hope that yet another audit of the 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County will show that President Joe Biden's 45,000 vote margin of victory there was illegitimate and serve as reason for other contested states to audit their elections.
Trump lost Arizona by roughly 10,000 votes overall.
The current audit effort has faced intense criticism from Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, as well as Republican officials in Maricopa county and independent election experts. These critics say the audit process has been too secretive and frequently point out that Cyber Ninjas has no previous election administration or auditing experience.
Last week, Hobbs, who is running for governor, released a 122-page report accusing the audit of "security lapses, delays, disorganization, and lack of transparency." She pre-emptively argued that the findings of the report, which have not yet been released, are "invalid and unreliable" and said that the auditors "demonstrated a lack of understanding of election processes and procedures at both the state and county level.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican who supported Trump in the 2020 election, separately sent an open letter to state Republicans criticizing the audit effort. Citing multiple sources, providing extensive footnotes, and painstakingly walking through the election process step by step, Richer argued that the election in Maricopa County was not stolen or rigged.
"Maricopa County has used the same tabulation vendor and ballot printer, and has had many of the same employees, for more than 20 years. This team oversaw Maricopa County's vote for Trump in 2016, for Mitt Romney in 2012, for John McCain in 2008, and for George W. Bush in 2004. It administered the election of the continued Republican control of the Arizona state legislature in 2020. Through all these elections, there had never been a report of significant tabulation problems or widespread fraud," he wrote.
"After the November 2020 election, appointees from the Republican, Democrat, and Libertarian parties worked in bipartisan groups of three to hand count more than 47,000 votes. ... Those hand-counted votes matched the machine count 100%. The County then ran another, post-election, logic and accuracy test to make sure the machines had not been disrupted in any manner during the election. The results again matched 100%.
"Finally, in February 2021, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors hired two professional elections technology companies with many years of experience in tabulation equipment to do everything needed to do. The assessment took almost three weeks. We livestreamed the entire process, and we had representatives from the Arizona House, the Arizona Senate, and the Secretary of State's Office in regular attendance. ... The auditors found no problems with the equipment, no manipulation of the software code, no malware, and no connection to the internet. Those reports are publicly available."
Once Cyber Ninjas submits the full draft report, Fann said the Senate will review it for "accuracy, clarity, and proof of documentation" before turning it over to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will release its findings to the public.
Arizona Republicans to seek more data and materials from Maricopa County as officials slam uncertified auditors
Arizona State Senate Republicans will seek additional material and data from Maricopa County as part of a now three-month audit of the 2020 election results, Senate President Karen Fann (R-Prescott) said Thursday.
During a hearing at the state Capitol, witnesses from Cyber Ninjas, the uncertified Florida-based cybersecurity firm contracted by Fann to conduct the outside audit, told her and Sen. Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) they have finished auditing the 2.1 million ballots cast in the November election but need wireless routers and voting machine tokens from the county, or else their review will be "incomplete." Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan also recommended that canvassers go door to door to question some registered voters on whether they actually voted by mail, the Arizona Republic reported.
"Based on the data we're seeing, I highly recommend we do the canvassing because it's the one way to know for sure whether the data we're seeing are real problems," Logan said.
Previously, the state Senate has held off on dispatching canvassers after the U.S. Department of Justice warned that such an effort might be directed primarily at minority communities and that it could be a form of voter intimidation and violate federal civil rights laws.
If Maricopa County officials refuse to comply with the requests for additional materials, it is likely the Senate will take them to court, which could delay the publication of a final report on the audit for weeks or months. Senate Republicans already sued once for access to ballots and tabulation machines from the county and were only able to begin the audit after a judge ruled in their favor in February. Republicans argued the delay brought on by more litigation might be necessary to deliver an accurate report.
"We need to get the additional information because how do you do a final report if you don't have all the information?" Fann said.
County officials contend that they have already turned over everything a qualified auditor would need to complete an election audit and refuse to deliver further materials to auditors who are not certified by the Elections Assistance Commission.
Allegations of voting irregularities
Witness testimony on the findings from the audit raised several concerns about the integrity of the 2020 election. Logan testified alongside Ben Cotton, the founder of CyFir, a cybersecurity company that is subcontracting for the audit.
Logan claimed that nearly 4,000 Maricopa County voters who cast ballots in the presidential election registered to vote after a court-ordered deadline of Oct. 15.
"Based on the registration information that we found in the voting rolls, we have 3,981 individuals who show having voted in this election [who] were registered after Oct. 15," he said.
According to Logan, there were 11,326 individuals who did not appear on the version of the voter rolls made the day after the Nov. 6 election but did appear on voter rolls prepared on Dec. 7.
He also testified that 18,000 voters who cast ballots in November were removed from voter rolls after the election.
The auditor further alleged that 74,243 early votes were received, but "there is no clear record of them being sent." Logan emphasized that the discrepancy could be a "clerical issue" but added there is no real way to know without contacting voters directly.
"I think when we've got 74,000 it merits knocking on a door and validating some of this information," said Logan.
Officials from Maricopa County responded to several of these claims in real time on social media. The county pointed out that the 74,000 early ballots are explained by the fact that you can vote early by mail or in person at voting centers. Anyone who votes in person receives a ballot at the center, so "it's not unusual that we would have more early votes than mail-in ballots sent."
The people who vote in-person use ballots provided at a Vote Center. This is not a new practice, so it's not unusu… https://t.co/RhGiEf0cRC
— Maricopa County (@maricopacounty) 1626396261.0
Logan also raised concerns over the way ballots were printed, explaining that because voters were provided with felt-tipped markers on Election Day, there was a possibility that the ink bled through to the opposite side of the ballot, which could alter how the vote was counted. County officials have insisted that this "bleed-through" effect is of no concern because the ballots are printed in such a way that the "bubbles" were aligned. If it did happen, poll workers would easily recognize it and correct the ballot, they said.
This accuracy is verified through logic and accuracy tests, hand counts performed by the political parties, and pos… https://t.co/WfUrHYESsm
— Maricopa County (@maricopacounty) 1626396262.0
But Logan provided images that he says show that the ballots on Election Day were misaligned and that stray marks could have resulted in a ballot cast for the wrong candidate or an invalidated ballot because it appeared someone cast their vote twice. According to the Arizona Daily Star, as many as 168,000 ballots were printed and cast at voting centers on Election Day.
Concerns over security
Cotton testified that the voting machines used in Maricopa County had not received a security patch since 2019, when they were certified. He said it was "critically important" that the county turn over its routers for examination to determine what security risks were present on Election Day.
He noted that days before the election, the FBI raided a home in Fountain Hills as part of its investigation into a cyber attack on the county's voter registration system. The county had identified the attack and reported it to the authorities, but Cotton said the incident shows that at least one part of the county's election system had been "hacked."
Responding, county officials said Thursday that the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission prohibits uncertified individuals such as Cyber Ninjas and CyFir from handling certified election equipment, which is why they have refused to turn over the requested materials. The county added in a tweet that "we cannot update our systems through security patches. That is why we maintained an air gapped system. Installing security patches would be changing the system that was certified."
Finally, baseless allegations from Ben Cotton (who is not EAC certified) are ridiculous coming from the guy who fal… https://t.co/2xeUuivxLG
— Maricopa County (@maricopacounty) 1626372862.0
County officials have also previously said that turning over the information on its routers could compromise law enforcement data. If Fann presses for those materials, Maricopa County is almost sure to fight the request in court.
Republican Infighting
The controversy over Maricopa County's election results has pitted state Republican lawmakers against locally elected GOP officials in what was once a GOP stronghold.
President Joe Biden shocked Republicans by winning Maricopa County by more than 45,000 votes, narrowly defeating Donald Trump in the state of Arizona by about 10,000 votes total. Trump's insistence that the election was stolen despite multiple machine audits that verified the results has frustrated Maricopa County officials, who have defended the integrity of their election.
In a statement, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers blasted the Senate audit hearing and criticized Senate Republicans for contracting auditors who were not certified by the EAC.
"It's clear the people hired by Arizona Senate leadership to supposedly bring integrity to our elections are instead just bringing incompetence," Sellers said.
He accused Logan and Cotton of asking "open-ended questions, portraying as suspicious what is actually normal and well known to people who work in elections."
"In some cases, they dropped bombshell numbers that are simply not accurate," he added.
"What we heard today represents an alternate reality that has veered out of control since the November General Election. Senate leadership should be ashamed they broadcast the half-baked theories of the 'Deep Rig' crowd to the world today," he continued.
"To Senate leaders I say, stop accusing us of not cooperating when we have given you everything qualified auditors would need to do this job. Finish your audit, release the report, and be prepared to defend it in Court."
Speaking at the hearing, Fann defended the actions of Senate Republicans from critics who say their efforts are a waste of time and are feeding conspiracy theories that the election was stolen.
"This is not about Trump. This is not about overturning the election. This has never been about anything other than election integrity," Fann insisted.
Senator Karen Fann: “This is not about Trump. This is not about overturning the election. This has never been about… https://t.co/06i188vPDW
— Agent Brandoe The PipeHitter (@BYounger13) 1626370710.0
She cited a poll that found 45% of the people in Arizona thought there were serious problems with the election and reminded critics that as elected officials, lawmakers have a duty to respond to those concerns.
"Whether that is true or not, whether they are rumors and unfounded accusations or legitimate problems, for whatever reason, as a Senate body, we felt that it was our obligation and our duty to answer," said Fann.
"Our voters are constituents. Answer those questions and either confirm what they were afraid of or thought or heard, or that we prove that those things were not true so that they could go back to the polls and they could vote with confidence knowing that their ballot is sacred."
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