Arizona: GOP-backed recount of Maricopa County ballots appears on track to move forward after initial pause ordered by judge | Rosalind S. Helderman/The Washington Post

An extensive effort to recount ballots from the November election moved forward in Phoenix on Friday as a private vendor hired by Republicans in the Arizona Senate began reviewing nearly 2.1 million ballots cast in the state’s largest county. The recount of the ballots from Maricopa County was sought by Senate Republicans to examine unsubstantiated claims that fraud or errors tainted President Biden’s win. Election officials and the courts have found no merit to such allegations, and the GOP-led county board of supervisors has objected to the recount. After state Democrats filed a lawsuit this week to halt the proceedings, an Arizona judge on Friday ordered that the recount be paused for the weekend to consider their allegations that the process violates state laws governing the security of ballots. However, he required that the Democratic Party post a $1 million bond to cover the potential costs of a delay. On Friday afternoon, the state party said it would not put up the money, meaning the recount is on track to press ahead. Earlier this week, Senate Republicans exercised a subpoena to move voting equipment and ballots from county storage to the floor of the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where they have said a team of private companies will spend the next four weeks conducting a hand recount of ballots and a forensic audit of voting machines. Senate leaders have said the process is intended only to explore ways to improve the state’s elections, rather than to cast doubt on Biden’s 10,457-vote victory in Arizona over Donald Trump. But the recount has come under sharp criticism from election observers, voting rights advocates and Democrats, who have said it lacks independent oversight and could be used to further baseless claims about the 2020 election.

Full Article: GOP-backed recount of Maricopa County ballots appears on track to move forward after initial pause ordered by Arizona judge – The Washington Post

Arizona: Election conspiracies live on with GOP audit | Jonathan J. Cooper and Bob Christie/Associated Press

Months after former President Donald Trump’s election defeat, legislative Republicans in Arizona are challenging the outcome as they embark on an unprecedented effort to audit the results in the state’s most populous county. The state Senate used its subpoena power to take possession of all 2.1 million ballots in Maricopa County and the machines that counted them, along with computer hard drives full of data. They’ve handed the materials over to Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based consultancy with no election experience run by a man who has shared unfounded conspiracy theories claiming the official 2020 presidential election results are illegitimate. The process is alarming election professionals who fear the auditors are not up to the complex task and will severely undermine faith in democracy. “I think the activities that are taking place here are reckless and they in no way, shape or form resemble an audit,” said Jennifer Morrell, a partner at Elections Group, a consulting firm advising state and local election officials, which has not worked in Arizona. Conspiracy theories about the election have proliferated across the country even before President Joe Biden’s victory but have had particular staying power in Arizona, which flipped to the Democratic column for just the second time in 72 years. Trump on Friday predicted the audit would reveal fraud and would prompt similar reviews in other states he lost. “Thank you State Senators and others in Arizona for commencing this full forensic audit,” the former president said in a statement. “I predict the results will be startling!”

Full Article: Election conspiracies live on with audit by Arizona GOP

Arizona Republicans to begin auditing 2020 ballots in effort to undermine election results | Sam Levine/The Guardian

Nearly five months after Joe Biden was declared the official winner of the presidential race in Arizona, state Republicans are set to begin their own audit of millions of ballots, an unprecedented move many see as a thinly-veiled effort to continue to undermine confidence in the 2020 election results. The GOP-controlled state senate ordered the audit, set to formally get underway this week, which may be one of the most absurd and alarming consequences to date of Donald Trump’s baseless lies about the 2020 election. It will be executed by a private Florida-based company. It also reportedly will be supported from far-right lawyer Lin Wood and observers from the far-right news network One America News Network. The audit will be solely focused on Maricopa county, the largest in the state and home to a majority of Arizona’s voters. Biden narrowly defeated Trump in the county, a crucial battleground that helped the president win Arizona by around 10,000 votes. The audit will include a hand recount of all 2.1m ballots cast in the county, a process expected to take months. Trump and allies have claimed, without evidence, there was fraud in Maricopa county. But the county has already conducted two separate audits of the 2020 election and found no irregularities. The Republican decision to continue to investigate the results, months after they were certified by both county and state officials, extends the life of election conspiracy theories. The audit also comes as Arizona Republicans are advancing legislation in the state that would make it harder to vote by mail. “They’re trying to find something that we know doesn’t exist,” said Arizona secretary of state Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, who serves as the state’s top election official. “It’s ludicrous that people think that if they don’t like the results they can just come in and tear them apart.”

Full Article: Arizona Republicans to begin auditing 2020 ballots in effort to undermine election results | Arizona | The Guardian

Arizona judge orders pause in Republican-backed recount of ballots cast in Maricopa County last fall | Rosalind S. Helderman/The Washington Post

A judge in Arizona on Friday ordered a temporary pause in an extensive effort to recount ballots from the November election hours after the process began, citing concerns about whether a private vendor hired to review nearly 2.1 million ballots cast in the state’s largest county is complying with state laws governing election security. The recount of the ballots from Maricopa County is being conducted by Republicans in the state Senate to examine unsubstantiated claims that fraud or errors tainted President Biden’s win. Election officials and the courts have found no merit to such allegations, and the GOP-led county board of supervisors has objected to the recount. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Coury on Friday paused the audit from 5 p.m. Friday until Monday at noon in response to a suit filed by the state Democratic Party and the county’s only Democratic supervisor, who argued that the audit violates Arizona rules governing the confidentiality and security of ballots and voting equipment. “The lack of transparency around this ‘audit’ is astounding and we will not stand idly by as Senate President [Karen] Fann opens up our secure election to unqualified and completely unhinged actors who believe the ‘big lie,’ ” Raquel Terán, chairwoman of the state Democratic Party, said in a statement before the ruling. “This has gone far enough and we are hopeful that the courts will put an end to this embarrassing and dangerous circus.”

Full Article: Arizona judge orders pause in Republican-backed recount of ballots cast in Maricopa County last fall – The Washington Post

Arizona: ‘You want to see a temper tantrum?’: Republican sides with Democrats, blocks voting bill | Jane C. Timm/NBC

A bill that would stop some voters from getting a ballot automatically mailed to them each election failed unexpectedly in Arizona’s state Senate Thursday after a single Republican joined Democrats in voting against the legislation. GOP state Sen. Kelly Townsend explained her surprise “no” vote on the state Senate floor amid a tense episode that saw the senator get into a heated confrontation with the bill’s sponsor. “I am for this bill, but I am not voting for it until after the audit,” she said, referring to an audit orchestrated by Senate Republicans of ballots in Maricopa County reportedly set to get underway this week and last through mid-May. The audit is a continuation of GOP efforts to question the results of the 2020 election in a state President Joe Biden won by over 10,000 votes. His narrow victory prompted many Republicans to embrace former President Donald Trump’s baseless allegations of voter fraud. Some called for the Legislature to overrule Biden’s win and seat electors who would deliver the state to Trump instead. (State GOP leaders said the Legislature did not have that power, and Biden’s Electoral College victory was certified. In 2016, Trump won the key state of Michigan by about 10,000 votes.)

Full AQrticle: ‘You want to see a temper tantrum?’: Arizona Republican sides with Democrats, blocks voting bill

Arizona GOP prepares another audit of 2020 election in state’s largest county | Kristine Frazao/WCTI

Arizona was a state President Joe Biden wasn’t sure he’d win in the 2020 election. But in the end, Arizona voters chose him over former President Donald Trump by over 10,000 votes, a result determined by two independent audits in Maricopa County – the largest county in the state. Another audit is set to begin this week at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum to once again count the 2.1 million ballots and search for discrepancies. But five months after the election, critics continue to warn the effort is highly partisan and a threat to democracy. “So really this audit only seems to serve to stoke the spires of conspiracy and partisan gamesmanship to be quite honest,” said C. Jay Coles, with Verified Voting, one of the four national voting rights groups to voice concern, particularly about the Florida-based firm Cyber Ninjas that was hired to lead the recount.

Source: Arizona GOP prepares another audit of 2020 election in state’s largest county | WCTI

Arizona: Jovan Pulitzer, an icon among election fraud believers, will play a role in the election audit | Jeremy Duda/Arizona Mirror

Jovan Pulitzer, a favorite of election fraud conspiracy theorists who claims to have invented technology that can detect fraudulent ballots and whom Georgia’s Republican secretary of state recently derided as a “failed inventor and a failed treasure hunter,” will have a role in the Senate’s audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County. The audit will seek to “identify any ballots that are suspicious and potentially counterfeit,” according to the statement of work for the lead contractor, Cyber Ninjas. Pulitzer’s name does not appear in the document. But Ken Bennett, Arizona’s former secretary of state who’s serving as a spokesman for the audit, confirmed his involvement, though he said he’s unsure whether Pulitzer himself will be involved or whether the audit team will only be using his technology that Pulitzer claims can detect fraudulent ballots. Pulitzer’s involvement comes despite any evidence whatsoever that fraudulent ballots were cast in the general election, despite a lack of confirmation that his technology works as he claims, and despite questions about his credibility. Bennett said Doug Logan, the owner and CEO of Cyber Ninjas, told him that he consulted with Pulitzer while designing the process used to test the ballots, a process that Bennett said will include other people’s technology as well. He said his understanding is that all 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County will be examined. Bennett said the Senate has not independently verified that Pulitzer’s technology actually does what he claims, but that other election officials he’s spoken with over the years have described similar technologies. “So, it doesn’t strike me as odd at all that he may have some technology to do the same thing,” Bennett said.

Full Article: Jovan Pulitzer, an icon among election fraud believers, will play a role in the Arizona election audit

Arizona: A cybersecurity expert who promoted claims of fraud in the 2020 election is leading the GOP-backed recount of millions of ballots | Rosalind S. Helderman/The Washington Post

The nearly 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County, Ariz., last fall are currently packaged in 40 cardboard shrink-wrapped boxes and stacked on 45 pallets in a county facility in Phoenix known as “the vault,” due to its sophisticated security and special fire-suppression system. But on order of the Republican-led state Senate, the ballots and the county’s voting equipment are scheduled to be trucked away next week — handed over for a new recount and audit spurred by unsubstantiated claims that fraud or errors tainted President Biden’s win in Arizona’s largest county. The ballots will be scrutinized not by election officials, but by a group of private companies led by a private Florida-based firm, whose owner has promoted claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent and who has been cited as an expert by allies of former president Donald Trump seeking to cast doubt on the election in other parts of the country. Trump supporters, including a lawyer who volunteered with his post-election legal team, have been raising private dollars to supplement $150,000 in taxpayer money that has been earmarked to fund the Arizona recount.

Full Article: A cybersecurity expert who promoted claims of fraud in the 2020 election is leading the GOP-backed recount of millions of ballots in Arizona – The Washington Post

Arizona audit leader Doug Logan wrote fraud claims on ‘kraken’ lawyer’s website | Jeremy Duda/Arizona Mirror

A document that conspiracy theorist attorney Sidney Powell posted on her website with various allegations against Dominion Voting Systems lists its author as Doug Logan, the man hired by Senate Republicans to lead the team that will audit the 2020 election in Maricopa County, including a thorough examination of that same company’s ballot tabulation machines. Powell is a one-time attorney for former President Donald Trump who became infamous for spreading false claims about election fraud and filing failed lawsuits attempting to overturn election results in several swing states that President Joe Biden won, including Arizona. She posted the document on a section of her website called, “Evidence of Fraud – 2020 Election.” The metadata for one of the documents, titled, “Election Fraud Facts & Details,” lists “Douglas Logan” as the author. Logan is the owner and CEO of Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based cybersecurity firm that Senate President Karen Fann chose to head up a team of companies that will conduct an audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, including a hand recount of all 2.1 million ballots cast. Among the various claims in the document is a debunked allegation that the “core software” used by Dominion originated with and is the intellectual property of Smartmatic, alleging the latter company was founded in Venezuela and has ties to Hugo Chavez, the country’s socialist dictator who died in 2013. It claims Smartmatic has been linked to election rigging in Venezuela, India and the Philippines. The paper that Logan authored alleges ties between Dominion and China, and repeats a discredited claim that the private equity firm that owns Dominion sold it to a Chinese-controlled securities company. Claims of ties between Dominion and Chinese investors were largely based on confusion between the similarly named New York and China-based subsidiaries of a Swiss securities company.

Full Article: Arizona audit leader Doug Logan wrote fraud claims on ‘kraken’ lawyer’s website

Arizona: He pushed lies to try to steal the election for Trump. Now he’s running an election audit. | Emily Singer/American Singer

Doug Logan, the man whose company Cyber Ninjas Arizona Republicans have tapped to oversee a third audit of the state’s 2020 election results, is the author of a lie-filled “fact” sheet that was intended for U.S. senators to use in justifying their objections to certifying President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory in January. The Arizona Mirror reported that the document, titled “Election Fraud Facts & Details,” was posted on ex-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell’s website. The document contains multiple lies about the voting machine software companies Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic USA, falsely alleging that the companies had ties to dead Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez and that they rigged the machines to switch votes from Trump to Biden. Powell is being sued for making that claim, which has been debunked multiple times, including in a joint report issued by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. “We — the Department of Justice, including the FBI, and Department of Homeland Security, including CISA — have no evidence that any foreign government-affiliated actor prevented voting, changed votes, or disrupted the ability to tally votes or to transmit election results in a timely manner; altered any technical aspect of the voting process; or otherwise compromised the integrity of voter registration information of any ballots cast during 2020 federal elections,” the departments reported. Logan told the Arizona Mirror that he did author the document that was on Powell’s website: “Some of it is based on my own research, but quite a bit is information I got from other people but personally vetted.” The selection of Cyber Ninjas by Arizona’s GOP Senate President Karen Fann to oversee the third audit of election results was announced on March 31. Two audits of the results have already found that there was no fraud.

Full Article: He pushed lies to try to steal the election for Trump. Now he’s running an election audit.

Arizona: Voting rights groups: Tactics in election audit are illegal, intimidating | Howard Fischer/Arizona Daily Star

Tactics planned by 2020 election auditors hired by the Arizona Senate are illegal and even criminal, attorneys for various voter rights groups contend. And the groups might go to court to try to halt them. In a letter Tuesday to Doug Logan, the CEO of Cyber Ninjas, the lawyers said the plans — which include knocking on doors and contacting people — “constitute voter intimidation.” They said it’s irrelevant whether that is the intent, and even whether that’s part of the contract Logan signed late last month with Senate President Karen Fann. That contract involves having Cyber Ninjas and other firms knock on doors in Maricopa County to determine if people actually live at that address and validate that they did in fact cast a ballot in November. A copy of the scope of work obtained by Capitol Media Services shows that Cyber Ninjas did some of that in-person contact even before the contract was signed. And the document claims that work has “brought forth a number of significant anomalies suggesting significant problems in the voter rolls.” The same document says Cyber Ninjas and others working with the Florida firm will audit at least three voting precincts they have decided have “a high number of anomalies,” to “conduct an audit of voting history related to all members of the voter rolls.”

Full Article: Voting rights groups: Tactics in Arizona election audit are illegal, intimidating | Arizona and Regional News | tucson.com

Arizona: Maricopa County board to Senate: Find another spot to recount ballots | Bob Christie/Associated Press

Maricopa County’s elected leaders aren’t interested in allowing a firm led by a backer of unfounded election fraud theories to use county facilities to recount 2.1 million ballots from November’s election as part of an audit that Arizona Senate’s Republican leaders plan to conduct. The decision by the Republican-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors came after the board met with its lawyers Thursday, a day after Senate President Karen Fann announced the auditors she had hired to try to show whether President Joe Biden’s victory was legitimate. It means Fann, who won a court order allowing access to the ballots and voting machines late last month, will need to find a secure location to do the recount. The board has never indicated it would let the Senate use its vote count center, but Fann repeatedly suggested she wanted to use the facility. Board Chairman Jack Sellers said in a Thursday evening statement that the board respects the “power of the Senate” and has been ready to comply with a subpoena to deliver the ballots and vote-counting equipment for more than a month. In a letter Sellers instructed to be sent to the Senate’s lawyer, the county’s lawyer said the county “stands ready” to deliver the ballots and tabulation equipment to the Senate or “a non-County owned location of the Senators’ choosing.” Meanwhile, Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs fired off a letter to the county board expressing concerns about the company hired to lead the audit, Florida-based Cyber Ninjas, and the contract that shows auditors will try to track down and question voters.

Full Article: County board to Senate: Find another spot to recount ballots

Arizona: ASOG, one of the Antrim County MI election report firms, is dropped by Arizona offiicals | Mardi Link/Traverse City Record-Eagle

A Dallas-based firm tasked with conducting a court-sanctioned examination of Antrim County’s election equipment, was initially considered by Republican leadership in Arizona to assist with an audit there, then dropped over concerns about partisanship, records show. Antrim County, Michigan and Maricopa County, Arizona, both use Dominion Voting Systems election equipment and officials in both counties are embroiled in election-related lawsuits, which seek to question results of the 2020 election. Arizona’s Republican-led state senate won a lawsuit earlier this year, seeking to take possession of Maricopa County ballots for a forensic review, after a county-wide audit found no irregularities, the Arizona Mirror reported. State Senate President Karen Fann in February selected Allied Security Operations Group and an “ASOG scope of work” document was drafted, with a plan to pay the firm $10,000 for a forensic exam and a written report, as reported in the Arizona Mirror. ASOG in December provided similar services — though on a smaller scale — to Bill Bailey, a Central Lake Township man suing Antrim County. Bailey accuses the county of violating his constitutional rights, after he said in court filings Dominion Voting Systems equipment was intentionally error-prone or fraudulent — a characterization Dominion CEO John Poulos and election officials have said is false.

Full Article: Antrim election report firm dropped by Arizona offiicals | News | record-eagle.com

Arizona Senate hires a ‘Stop the Steal’ advocate to lead 2020 election audit | Jeremy Duda and Jim Small/Arizona Mirror

The audit team that Senate President Karen Fann selected to examine the 2020 general election in Maricopa County will be led by a company owned by an advocate of the “Stop the Steal” movement who repeatedly alleged on social media that the election was rigged against former President Donald Trump. Fann announced on Wednesday that she’d selected four companies to participate in an extensive audit and recount of the election, led by Cyber Ninjas, an Florida-based cybersecurity company. Cyber Ninjas is owned by Doug Logan, who has been an active promoter of baseless conspiracy theories alleging widespread election fraud last year, including in Arizona. “I’m tired of hearing people say there was no fraud. It happened, it’s real, and people better get wise fast,” read a tweet from a since-suspended account that Logan retweeted on Dec. 31.  Logan was also listed as an expert witness by a man who filed a lawsuit alleging election fraud in Antrim County, Mich., which was the focus of early conspiracy theories due to a human-caused software error that briefly swapped vote totals between Trump and Joe Biden in the heavily Republican county. Among the other expert witnesses were Russell Ramsland and Phil Waldron of Texas-based Allied Security Operations Group, which Fann attempted to hire to conduct the audit, despite an extensive track record of making groundless or demonstrably false allegations about the fraud in the election.

Source: Arizona Senate hires a ‘Stop the Steal’ advocate to lead 2020 election audit

Arizona Senate hires firm that spread election lie to audit Maricopa County results | Reid Wilson/TheHill

Arizona Senate Republicans have chosen a firm headed by a security consultant who spread baseless conspiracy theories about the 2020 elections to oversee an audit of election results from Maricopa County. State Senate President Karen Fann (R) said Wednesday that the state would retain four firms to conduct a forensic audit of county election results. The company that will lead the audit, Cyber Ninjas, is owned and operated by Doug Logan, a Florida man who helped spread lies about the election’s results last year. Logan retweeted conspiracy theorists such as Ron Watkins, a former administrator of the 8chan network who some believe is the man behind QAnon, and Michael Flynn, former President Trump’s first national security adviser, according to a Twitter archive first reported by The Arizona Mirror. Logan himself posted false claims about Dominion Voting Systems, the company that has sued attorney Sidney Powell and Fox News after it became the target of Trump-backed conspiracy theories. He was listed as an expert witness in a lawsuit challenging the validity of one Michigan county’s counts. Logan has since deleted his Twitter feed.

Full Article: Arizona Senate hires firm that spread election lie to audit county results | TheHill

Arizona legislature proposes controversial changes to election laws | Christopher Conover/AZPM

Arizona state lawmakers have introduced various bills this year that would change how residents vote and the state counts ballots. Critics say some are a response to President Joe Biden’s win in the state last November. Julia Shumway is Senate reporter at the Arizona Capitol Times. She said there are an unusually high number of election bills introduced in the legislature this year, even when compared to other post-election years. Shumway pointed out that support or opposition for most of these election bills is divided along party lines. Republican state Rep. John Kavanagh drew criticism for his remarks to CNN about how Democrats value the quantity of voters and risk fraud, while his party would rather adopt security measures. He said “everyone shouldn’t be voting.” Shumway said that Rep. Kavanagh gave voice to an implicit theme in this year’s proposed legislation. “That is definitely a tension that is under a lot of the bills that we see this year — who should be voting and do we want everyone in Arizona to have the ability to vote and to vote easily?” Shumway said.

Full Article: Arizona legislature proposes controversial changes to election laws – AZPM

Arizona GOP must pay $18K in groundless election suit | Jacques Billeaud/Associated Press

The Arizona Republican Party and its lawyers must pay $18,000 in attorneys’ fees that taxpayers were forced to pick up late last year to defend government officials against one of the party’s failed lawsuits challenging President Joe Biden’s victory in the state, a judge has ruled. In a decision Friday, Judge John Hannah concluded the state GOP brought a groundless legal claim to court, filed its case for political reasons while claiming it was trying to protect election integrity, and failed to acknowledge it sued the wrong government officials. The financial award was made under a law that requires judges to assess attorney fees against lawyers or legal parties who bring claims to court without substantial justification or to delay or harass. The judge wrote the GOP had in effect acknowledged it brought the lawsuit for an improper purpose when it said the suit was motivated by public mistrust after the election. “‘Public mistrust’ is a political issue, not a legal or factual basis for litigation,” the judge wrote. Hannah said the party didn’t make a serious effort before filing the lawsuit to determine whether its claims were valid and never named Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs as the official responsible for carrying out the law at issue in the case and instead sued Maricopa County officials. Jack Wilenchik, one of the attorneys representing the Arizona GOP, issued a statement saying the decision would be appealed and that the judge’s conclusion that public mistrust in an election is an improper reason for a political party to bring to court is “sorely disrespectful to the views of the many Americans whom I am proud to represent.” Wilenchik said the order “encourages public distrust in the government for being openly hostile to them.”

Full Article: Judge: Arizona GOP must pay $18K in groundless election suit

Arizona ‘Everybody shouldn’t be voting’: Republican defends voter restrictions as GOP pushes ‘fraud’ claims | Alex Woodward/The Independent

A Republican lawmaker in Arizona has defended GOP-sponsored legislation to restrict ballot access as a means to protect “the quality of votes” and arguing that “everybody shouldn’t be voting” as Republicans in at least 43 states introduce dozens of bills to curb voting rights, compelled by spurious fraud claims and election conspiracy theories in the wake of 2020 elections and disproportionately impacting Black voters. Arizona state Rep John Kavanagh, who chairs the state legislature’s Government and Elections Committee, told CNN that Democrats are “willing to risk fraud” by expanding voter access, and that “Republicans are more concerned about fraud, so we don’t mind putting security measures in that won’t let everybody vote – but everybody shouldn’t be voting.” Mr Kavanagh was referencing a measure that could purge thousands of people from a list of voters who automatically receive popular mail-in ballots during elections. Arizona lawmakers are considering roughly two dozen other bills. Mr Kavanagh also suggested that Democrats’ voter registration and ballot collection drives can “greatly influence the outcome of the election” by targeting “uninformed” voters. “Not everybody wants to vote, and if somebody is uninterested in voting, that probably means that they’re totally uninformed on the issues,” he told CNN. “Quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes, as well.” “Elected Republicans think they get to pick who is allowed to vote,” said US Rep Bill Pascrell of New Jersey. “This is the new Jim Crow.”

Full Article: john kavanaugh arizona voting laws | The Independent

Arizona House Republican says party thinks ‘everybody shouldn’t be voting’ | Justine Coleman/The Hill

An Arizona House Republican said on Thursday that the state’s GOP is worried about sending ballots out automatically due to election security concerns, noting that “everybody shouldn’t be voting.” Arizona House Rep. John Kavanagh (R) told CNN that Republican lawmakers are concerned ballots sent without being requested to people who have died or moved could contribute to voter fraud, while accusing Democrats of being “willing to risk fraud” to get more votes. “There’s a fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans,” he said. “Democrats value as many people as possible voting, and they’re willing to risk fraud. Republicans are more concerned about fraud, so we don’t mind putting security measures in that won’t let everybody vote — but everybody shouldn’t be voting.” “Not everybody wants to vote, and if somebody is uninterested in voting, that probably means that they’re totally uninformed on the issues,” he said. “Quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes, as well.” He also called out Democratic efforts to register voters and get those who haven’t turned in their ballots to do so, saying “you can greatly influence the outcome of the election if one side pays people to actively and aggressively go out and retrieve those ballots.”

Full Article: Arizona House Republican says party thinks ‘everybody shouldn’t be voting’ | TheHill

Arizona Senate working to set up Maricopa election audit | Bob Christie/Associated Press

Arizona’s Republican Senate president said Wednesday she has narrowed the search for a firm to do a full audit of the 2020 election results in the state’s most populous county and plans to invite Democrats to participate in the process. Still, nearly two weeks after a judge sided with the Senate in a fight over access to ballots and elections equipment from Maricopa County’s election, Senate President Karen Fann said there are many details to be worked out. They include just who the Senate will hire to do the audit, what exactly it will entail, how much it will cost taxpayers and where it will be conducted. “We’ve got to work out logistics based on who we select,” Fann said. “They need to give us guidelines for how much space they need, for how many people, how much time, so I can go back to the board of supervisors … and say this is what we need to do the audit.” A judge ruled Feb. 26 that the Senate was entitled to receive all 2.1 million voted ballots and access to vote tabulation machines and other equipment used in the election that saw Democratic President Joe Biden beat former President Donald Trump in the county and statewide. The Republican-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors had fought the Senate subpoenas for more than two months, arguing the ballots were by law secret, the vote machines would be compromised by unauthorized access, and that multiple audits, hand-count checks and other tests showed no issues with the vote tabulations. The judge ruled the Senate had the absolute right to oversee elections and could access the materials.

Full Article: Arizona Senate working to set up Maricopa election audit

Arizona Senate moves to restrict early voting | Howard Fischer/Arizona Capitol Times

Republican senators are moving on two fronts to erect new hurdles in the path of those who want to vote early. On a party-line vote, GOP senators on Monday decided to scrap existing laws which determine the validity of early ballots based solely on county election workers matching their signatures on the envelopes with what’s on file. Instead, they would need to provide an affidavit with their date of birth and the number of a state driver’s license, identification card or tribal enrollment card. No such identification? Voters would have to send a copy of any other federal state or locally issued ID card. And if they don’t have that? The proposal by Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, gets more complicated. First, there’s the need for someone’s voter registration number. “Raise your hand if you know your voter registration number,” said Sen. Sean Bowie, D-Tempe. But that isn’t enough. Then they have to enclose an actual physical copy of something with their actual address like a utility bill, vehicle registration form, property tax statement or a bank statement dated within the past 90 days. Monday’s vote on SB1713 is just part of the GOP plan to make it more difficult to cast an early ballot.

Full Article: Senate moves to restrict early voting – Arizona Capitol Times

Arizona Republicans lead national push to restrict the vote | Melanie Mason/Los Angeles Times

The national battle over voting restrictions was, for one sluggish February afternoon, waged in a cramped hearing room of Arizona’s House of Representatives. Separated by plexiglass barriers, Republican lawmakers steadily plowed ahead on bills that, put together, could make it harder for Arizonans to vote. Members of a House committee advanced a proposal to forbid the use of private money to help conduct elections, such as by buying equipment or funding voter education. They approved a bill making it a felony for an official to change any election-related date set in statute. They OKd a measure to preemptively forbid same-day voter registration, which the state does not currently offer. Each bill was portrayed by its proponents as a commonsense housekeeping measure to guard against wrongdoing, or even the perception of it. Voting rights advocates see a broader — and more damaging — agenda. “If you look at one of them, it may not seem that big a deal, but there’s 50 or more of them,” Alex Gulotta, Arizona state director of All Voting is Local, said in an interview. “They all add up to changing our election system in substantial ways to basically respond to the ‘Big Lie’” — that last year’s presidential election was stolen from former President Trump. Similar scenes are playing out in statehouses across the country, with a barrage of voting restriction measures snaking through the legislative process.

Full Article: Arizona Republicans lead national push to restrict the vote – Los Angeles Times

Arizona: Judge Rules State Senate Can Access 2020 Election Ballots | Bob Christie/Associated Press

A judge ruled Friday that the Arizona Senate can get access to 2.1 million ballots and election equipment from Arizona’s most populous county so it can audit results of the 2020 election that saw Democrat Joe Biden win in the state. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Thomason’s decision comes after a protracted battled between the Republican-controlled state Senate and the GOP-dominated Maricopa County board over subpoenas issued by the Senate. The five-member Board of Supervisors argued that the ballots were secret, that the Legislature had no right to access them and that the subpoenas issued by Senate President Karen Fann were for an illegitimate purpose, among other arguments. The Senate’s lawyers contended that the constitution gives the Legislature the role of maintaining the purity of elections and make sure voter integrity is protected, that the subpoenas were legal and a proper use of legislative power. In his ruling, Thomason agreed with the Senate on all those arguments, saying the subpoenas “are legal and enforceable.” “There is no question that the Senators have the power to issue legislative subpoenas,” Thomason wrote. “The Subpoenas comply with the statutory requirements for legislative subpoenas. The Senate also has broad constitutional power to oversee elections.

Full Article: Judge Rules Arizona Senate Can Access 2020 Election Ballots | Arizona News | US News

Arizona: Maricopa County’s 2020 election votes were counted correctly, more county audits show | Jen Fifield/Arizona Republic

The results of Maricopa County’s independent audit of 2020 election results are in.The verdict: The election was sound.Maricopa County on Tuesday released the results of election audits from two independent auditors it hired to verify that voting machines were not hacked, were not connected to the internet and counted votes properly during the 2020 general election. The auditors found that the county used certified equipment and software, no malicious hardware was found on voting machines, the machines were not connected to the internet, and the machines were programmed to tabulate ballots accurately, according to a letter from county election directors to the supervisors. These results, along with the previous audits the county and political parties did and other security protocols “confirm that Maricopa County Elections Department’s configuration and setup of the tabulation equipment and election management system provided an accurate counting of ballots and reporting of election results,” county election directors Scott Jarrett and Rey Valenzuela wrote in the letter. The county’s Board of Supervisors will review the audit results at a 1 p.m. meeting on Wednesday. The results and results summary were posted Tuesday as an attachment to the meeting agenda. Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers said in a statement on Tuesday that the county was releasing the audit results “so that the public can see what we see and know what we know: no hacking or vote switching occurred in the 2020 election.”

Full Article: Maricopa County’s election audits show 2020 votes counted correctly

Arizona: Election lawsuit from GOP chair Kelli Ward denied hearing by U.S. Supreme Court | Maria Polletta/Arizona Republic

The U.S. Supreme Court will not consider Arizona Republican Party leader Kelli Ward’s claim she was denied due process when challenging the state’s presidential election results.Nor will justices review Ward’s constitutional challenge of the federal “safe harbor” deadline, the cutoff by which states must resolve election disputes to guarantee Congress will count their electors’ votes.The court announced its decision Monday without explanation. Ward did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Ward, chair of the state party and an avid supporter of former President Donald Trump, initially filed the lawsuit Maricopa County Superior Court, seeking to have a judge void President Joe Biden’s 10,457-vote win in Arizona.She questioned the signature verification process used by Maricopa County to authenticate mail-in ballots — as well as the duplication process election officials used to count ballots that tabulation machines couldn’t read — and asked to inspect thousands of Arizona ballots for irregularities. Superior Court Judge Randall Warner granted Ward only a limited review, as the federal “safe harbor” deadline for election challenges was fast approaching. Of the more than 1,700 ballots Ward’s team inspected, six contained errors that hurt Trump and two contained errors that hurt Biden. Over a day and a half of testimony and oral arguments, Ward’s team failed to prove anything beyond a handful of garden variety mistakes, the judge ruled. If the error rate identified in the sample held statewide, government attorneys said, Trump would’ve gained fewer than 200 votes.

Full Article: U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear Kelli Ward’s lawsuit on Arizona election

Arizona leads nation in proposals to suppress votes, groups say | Laura Gómez/Arizona Mirror

Local and national civic advocacy groups are paying close attention to a laundry list of proposed legislation in Arizona that would make it harder for voters to participate in elections. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, Arizona leads the nation in “proposed voter suppression legislation in 2021.” In a press call Tuesday morning, Stand Up America — a progressive organization working to increase voter participation — echoed this finding. “What is going in Arizona right now is particularly insidious,” said Christina Harvey, managing director of Stand Up America. Harvey said 33 state legislatures have proposals that would make it harder for voters to cast their ballot. States like Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania — all battleground states with Republican legislatures that former President Donald Trump narrowly lost in November — are awash with restrictive voting measures, Harvey said. “Republicans, seeing that they increasingly cannot win free and fair elections, are trying to make it harder to vote for those who may not support them, rather offering a vision of America that might appeal to those voters,” Harvey said. “Arizona, a state Donald Trump lost by only 10,000 votes, leads the nation in the number of proposed voter suppression bills.” Arizona community organizations and voting rights groups have identified approximately 40 bills introduced by Republican lawmakers that would purge eligible voters from early voting lists, make it harder for election officials to send out ballots over the mail, eliminate Arizona’s Permanent Early Voting List, change how Electoral College electors are selected and even allow legislators to overturn election results. “These are extremely dangerous proposals, and even if some of them may not make it out, even though some of them may not pass, they are evidence of a level of fanaticism and megalomania that is very disconcerting,” said Alex Gulotta, state director for All Voting Is Local Action Arizona. “They are designed to let less voices be heard.” 

Full Article: Arizona leads nation in proposals to suppress votes, groups say

Arizona: Months after Biden win, election officials still face threats | Bob Christie/Associated Press

For months, the four elected Republicans and one Democrat on the board overseeing Arizona’s most populous county have been facing threats and harassment for backing election results that saw Democrat Joe Biden win in the state. That fury from some supporters of former President Donald Trump moved on this week to a GOP state senator, who had to change his phone number, flee his house with his wife and young son and get police protection. The focus on Sen. Paul Boyer came after he was the lone Republican who voted against a measure to subject the GOP-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to arrest for refusing to honor a Senate subpoena. It required the county to hand over ballots and vote-counting machines to the Senate so they could triple-check the results. County supervisor Clint Hickman, a Republican who has endured protests outside his house and graphic threats of violence since after the November election, has held his tongue. But with the new attacks on Boyer, he says he’s had enough. “I’m talking now because they’re doing it to a state senator who had no idea what he was probably stepping into,” Hickman said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday. Hickman described hateful and vicious threatening messages he’s received, a phalanx of 90 people protesting within 15 feet of his home’s front door and continuous attacks that have left his family fearful. All were from Trump supporters who questioned election results that saw a Democrat win Arizona for the first time since 1996.

Full Article: Months after Biden win, Arizona officials still face threats

Arizona GOP bill changes voting privacy | Howard Fischer/Capitol Media Services

Facing defeats in court, Republican lawmakers are moving to change the law — retroactively — in a bid to eventually get their hands on voting equipment and ballots, even if it takes months. Senate Bill 1408 would spell out in statute that county election equipment, systems, records and other information “may not be deemed privileged information, confidential information or other information protected from disclosure.” More to the point, the measure approved Thursday on a party-line 5-3 vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee declares this information is “subject to subpoena and must be produced.” And it empowers judge to compel production of the materials and records. Sen. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, who chairs the panel, made it clear the legislation has one purpose: to force the hand of Maricopa County officials who have so far refused to comply with a subpoena the Senate has issued. They have produced various records. But supervisors contend the county is precluded from surrendering access to voting machines and the actual ballots to senators or the auditors they hope to hire. And so far the Senate’s efforts to get a court ruling compelling disclosure have faltered.

Full Article: GOP bill changes voting privacy | Your Valley

Arizona Senate panel OKs bill requiring counties to disclose information on voting machines, systems | Howard Fischer/Arizona Daily Star

Facing defeats in court, Republican lawmakers are moving to change the law — retroactively — in a bid to eventually get their hands on voting equipment and ballots, even if it takes months. SB 1408 would spell out in statute that county election equipment, systems, records and other information “may not be deemed privileged information, confidential information or other information protected from disclosure.” The measure approved Thursday on a party-line 5-3 vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee declares that this information is “subject to subpoena and must be produced.” And it empowers judges to compel production of the materials and records. Sen. Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, who chairs the panel, made it clear the legislation has one purpose: to force the hand of Maricopa County officials who have so far refused to comply with a subpoena the Senate has issued. They have produced various records. But the supervisors contend the county is precluded from surrendering access to voting machines and the actual ballots to senators or the auditors they hope to hire. And so far the Senate’s efforts to get a court ruling compelling disclosure have faltered.

Full Article: Senate panel OKs bill requiring counties to disclose information on voting machines, systems | Latest News | tucson.com

Arizona Senate fails in attempt to hold Maricopa County supervisors in contempt over election audit | Andrew Oxford Jen Fifield/Arizona Republic

An attempt by Republican state senators to hold the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in contempt failed on Monday as lawmakers seek to conduct their own audit of the presidential election results. Breaking with the GOP caucus and casting the crucial vote against the measure, which could have led to the supervisors’ arrests, Sen. Paul Boyer said he wanted to give the county and Senate more time to work out their ongoing legal dispute over the Legislature’s proposed audit. “Today’s vote merely provides a little bit more time for us to work together charitably and amicably as friends,” Boyer, R-Glendale, told the Senate. Boyer said the Board of Supervisors does not have any policy disagreement with additional audits of the last election and that his vote was not intended as an end of the process. “My vote is about patience,” he said. The Senate issued subpoenas in December and January demanding copies of all the county’s mail-in ballots and access to voting machines. But county officials have not released the ballots or voting machines, contending that state law requires the ballots to be sealed unless a judge says otherwise.

Full Article: Arizona Senate vote on contempt for Maricopa County leaders fails