The elected county recorder and the elections director in Arizona’s Yavapai County are resigning after more than a year and a half of threats and heated criticism from backers of former President Donald Trump who accept his lie that he lost the 2020 election because of fraud. County Recorder Leslie Hoffman said Friday that she is fed up with the “nastiness” and has accepted a job outside the county. Her last day will be July 22. She said longtime elections director Lynn Constabile is leaving for the same reason, and Friday is her last day. “A lot of it is the nastiness that we have dealt with,” Hoffman said. “I’m a Republican recorder living in a Republican county where the candidate that they wanted to win won by 2-to-1 in this county and still getting grief, and so is my staff.” “I’m not sure what they think that we did wrong,” she said. “And they’re very nasty. The accusations and the threats are nasty.”
Advocates for Arizona’s ‘fake electors’ plan had legal doubts, new report finds | Ronald J. Hansen/Arizona Republic
Some of those involved in submitting presidential electors for President Donald Trump in Arizona after he had lost the state in 2020 knew their plan was legally dubious and want to keep its low public profile as long as possible, according to a report published Tuesday. Citing previously undisclosed emails, the New York Times painted the picture of an effort in key swing states, including Arizona, the closest contest in the country, that was both desperate and probably wouldn't pass legal scrutiny. Their plan was to submit papers to Congress suggesting Trump won the states, even though certified results showed then-President-elect Joe Biden had won them. Trump's allies hoped the dual slates of electors would serve as a justification for slowing or reversing the Jan. 6, 2021, certification of Biden's victory. After Vice President Mike Pence refused to consider the "fake electors," a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, halting the process for hours. Long before then, those pushing the long shot plan knew they stood on shaky ground, the Times reported. People familiar with the plan at the time have told The Arizona Republic that while the strategy was legally questionable, they didn't view their activity as criminally wrong. Source: Report shows Arizona electors knew of 'fake election' legal doubtsArizona: Sharpie misinformation bleeds into primary | Ali Swenson/Associated Press
Election officials in Arizona’s largest county won’t soon forget #SharpieGate — the social media uproar that emerged after the 2020 election based on the false claim that Sharpie pens provided at the polls would ruin ballots before they were counted. Now, as Maricopa County gears up for Arizona’s primary election on Tuesday, it’s facing a repeat of the same false theories in response to an announcement by election officials that they were switching to Pentel brand felt-tip pens on Election Day. “DO NOT use the felt tip pen they will try to give you,” one Twitter user wrote Thursday. “#SharpieGate all over again in AZ. Bring your ball-point pens,” wrote another, in a tweet that called election officials “treasonists” and accused them of trying to “rig the primaries.” The county provides felt-tip pens to voters at the polls on Election Day because the pens have quick-drying ink that won’t smudge the ballots or produce wet splotches that jam up onsite tabulators. That can require the machines to be cleaned, causing long lines at the polls. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer on Twitter urged those voting in Tuesday’s primary to “PLEASE PLEASE” use the provided pens to prevent machine problems and keep voting running smoothly. Full Article: Pen misinformation bleeds into Arizona primary | AP NewsArizona secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem doesn’t trust elections. Now he wants to run them. | Mary Jo Pitzl/Arizona Republic
Mark Finchem tells the story of a late-night search for three men suspected of pulling off a string of robberies in Kalamazoo, Michigan, three decades ago. An officer with the local police department at the time, Finchem stopped a suspicious vehicle but didn't have the evidence needed to make an arrest. As turned back toward his car, he noticed the stopped car's trunk was slightly ajar and got a bad feeling. He later learned a man was in there with a sawed-off shotgun. “I knew when I got out of my car something was wrong," Finchem said. "I didn’t know what.” That's how he views the 2020 presidential election, the event that has catapulted him to national notoriety and is propelling his bid as Arizona's next secretary of state. Something was wrong, he felt. “People see things they know are just wrong, but they don’t know what," he said in an interview late last year. He says he's here to sort it out for them. Finchem, 65, is finishing his fourth term as a Republican state representative from Oro Valley. He's a prominent proponent of false claims that Donald Trump was cheated out of the presidency. While court hearings, audits, congressional scrutiny and even a homegrown ballot review by the state Senate have failed to produce evidence of such fraud, Finchem maintains he has the proof. Thus far, he hasn't convinced political leaders or the courts.
Full Article: Arizona secretary of state primary 2022 candidate: Mark FinchemArizona: GOP poll watcher training casts unfounded suspicion on Arizona elections | Jen Fifield/AZ Mirror
The Republican National Committee is telling potential Arizona polling place observers that there are “festering problems” in how elections are run, such as security issues with vote-counting machines and problems with voter rolls, as it trains them for the state’s upcoming primary election. The RNC training delivers the message that the “2020 election had serious problems,” worrying experienced former election officials and lawyers who have trained observers in the past and who say the point of training should be simply to encourage observers to watch for violations of law at the polls without disturbing the peace. Republican Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates, who as an attorney led Republican observer training in the 2000s, said the messaging concerns him because his focus was always on providing a straightforward picture of what was legal and what was not at the polls. “It’s not about kind of ginning people up, which is what that sounds like,” Gates said. “That’s the narrative, though.” Votebeat watched an RNC Zoom training at the invitation of an attendee, and separately received information about an in-person training from an attendee, after an RNC spokesperson said that reporters were not allowed to attend. Full Article: GOP poll watcher training casts unfounded suspicion on Arizona electionsArizona lawmaker Rusty Bowers details the pressure put on him by Trump and Giuliani | Ximena Bustillo/ NPR
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican, told the committee during today's hearing about the pressure put on him by former President Donald Trump and his allies, including Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. Bowers testified that Giuliani told him of allegations of voter fraud committed by undocumented immigrants or dead people who were listed as having voted. Bowers said he and other GOP legislators pushed for explanations into the theories and for Giuliani to provide sufficient evidence to justify recalling the state's presidential electors. "In my recollection," Bowers said of Giuliani, "he said, We have lots of theories we just don't have the evidence.'" Bowers said Giuliani pressured him to call the Arizona legislature back into session — a unilateral move Bowers said he cannot do — to recall the electors that would be going to President Biden after Biden beat Trump in the state. "It is a tenet of my faith that the Constitution is divinely inspired," he said, growing visibly emotional. "I would not do it." The former president asked him to hold a hearing to investigate allegations of fraud in Arizona, he said, but added he didn't think the evidence "merited a hearing." Full Article: Lawmaker Rusty Bowers details the pressure put on him by Trump and Giuliani : NPRArizona: Lawsuit vs. voting machines factually flawed, Maricopa County claims | Howard Fischer/Arizona Daily Star
A lawsuit by two Republican candidates seeking to require a hand count of the 2022 election is both legally and factually flawed, a lawyer for Maricopa County is telling a federal judge. Candidates Kari Lake, running for governor, and Mark Finchem, running for secretary of state, claim counting machines are unreliable because they are subject to fraud and hacking. Those claims are based on mere allegations from states like Georgia, Wisconsin and Colorado “but not Arizona or Maricopa County,” said Emily Craiger, lawyer for Arizona’s most populous county, in a new 21-page legal filing. She told Judge John Tuchi that allegations machines are vulnerable because of “foreign manufacturing of components by hostile nations’’ are so generic as to not even merit his consideration. Craiger also pointed out that Arizona law requires various checks of counting equipment both before and after each election. There’s also a random hand count of selected races in at least 2% of the precincts to compare the tally made by volunteers from both major parties with what the machine recorded. She also told Tuchi a hand count of all ballots — nearly 2.1 million in Maricopa County alone — would be impossible. It took the firm hired by the Senate to audit the 2020 election more than three months, she pointed out, and that count was only of the presidential and U.S. senate races. “But ballots in Maricopa County seldom have fewer than 10 races in a primary,’’ Craiger said. “A general election, which includes judicial retention races, can have 60 to 70 races to count.’’
Full Article: Lawsuit vs. voting machines factually flawed, Maricopa County claims | Arizona and Regional News | tucson.com
Arizona early voting upheld by judge, rejecting GOP attempt to end it | Mary Jo Pitzl/Arizona Republic
There's nothing unconstitutional about Arizona's early voting law, a Mohave County judge determined Monday. The ruling, knocking down a lawsuit from the Republican Party of Arizona, is a win for the state's election officials and Arizona voters who use the early-voting system, a vast majority of the electorate. And it's another setback for the state party, which has argued the practice violates the Arizona Constitution's requirement for ballot secrecy. Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen boiled down the essence of the case in his four-page ruling to this: "Is the Arizona Legislature prohibited by the Arizona Constitution from enacting voting laws that include no-excuse mail-in voting? The answer is no." He noted that the no-excuses mail-in voting that lawmakers approved in 1991 provides protections for secrecy. For example, the ballot return envelopes are designed in a way to ensure the voter's choices are not visible. In addition, the envelopes are "tamper evident" so election workers can notice if someone has tried to open the ballot envelope. Jantzen denied the Republican Party's case as well as its request for a preliminary injunction that would have blocked almost all early voting for the Nov. 8 general election. That would have required millions of Arizona voters to obtain their ballot at the polls and cast it there.
Full Article: Arizona early voting upheld by judge, rejecting GOP attempt to end itArizona Governor Ducey vetoes ‘vague’ voter cancellation bill | Howard Fischer/Arizona Daily Star
Gov. Doug Ducey has vetoed legislation which would have required county election officials to cancel the registration of anyone they determine is not qualified to vote. The move Friday, the first by the governor this session, came amid concerns from county officials that what was in HB 2617 could lead to mischief as it would allow individuals to make unsubstantiated claims that some people on the voter registration rolls should be removed. Jennifer Marson, executive director of the Arizona Association of Counties, said that, in turn, would trigger automatic investigations. Marson, in a letter Friday to Ducey, also pointed out what she said were illegal provisions in the measure. The governor, in his veto message, said he agrees. "The implementation of this provision is vague and lacks any guidance for how a county recorder would confirm such a determination," Ducey wrote. "Our lawfully registered voters deserve to know that their right to vote will not be disturbed without sufficient due process," he continued. "This provision leaves our election system vulnerable to bad actors who could seek to falsely allege a voter is not a qualified elector."
Full Article: Gov. Ducey vetoes 'vague' voter cancellation bill | Government-and-politics | tucson.com
As Arizona Republicans revive lawsuit to stop early voting, Attorney General won’t defend the state | Mary Jo Pitzl/Arizona Republic
The Republican Party has restarted its lawsuit to end early voting in Arizona, but the state won't have a key official defending the practice: Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has dropped out of the case. The decision not to defend the early voting system came from a mutual agreement between the Republican Party of Arizona, which filed the complaint, and the Attorney General's Office, court records show. It is not clear who initiated the move to leave the lawsuit. "I'll let the AG's office comment on that," said attorney Alexander Kolodin, who is representing the state party. Brnovich's office did not reply to a query about why he agreed to the move. But in a filing to the Mohave County Superior Court, state Solicitor General Brunn W. Roysden III stated the Attorney General's Office agrees to be bound by the outcome of the lawsuit, including any appeals. The state GOP moved their lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of early voting to Mohave County after the state Supreme Court last month declined to take up the matter, saying it needed to start in a lower court. A hearing is scheduled for June 3.
Full Article: Attorney General Mark Brnovich won't defend early voting in GOP caseArizona would likely see recounts after every election under popular bill | Jen Fifield/AZ Mirror
Arizona’s largest county, Maricopa, would likely be required to recount all ballots cast in every election moving forward if a proposed change to state law passes. The bill, awaiting a final vote as early as today in the Arizona Legislature after garnering bipartisan support, would vastly widen the margin of votes between candidates that triggers an automatic recount in primary and general elections, for almost every type of race. The change would prompt more frequent recounts in large and small counties alike. In the 2020 general election, it would have triggered two statewide recounts and two countywide recounts in Maricopa County, including the presidential race which Joe Biden won narrowly in the state. The stated goal is to build voter confidence in election outcomes in a battleground state where margins are often tight and recounts are currently rarely allowed. State Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, R-Scottsdale, who introduced Senate Bill 1008, says it would still only require recounts on races that are very close. “Here is an opportunity to help reinforce the process,” Ugenti-Rita said. “To give the voters confidence that, when races are razor tight, we make sure they were counted accurately.” Full Article: Arizona would likely see recounts after every election under popular billArizona justices to decide if public has right to see Cyber Ninja election audit records | Michael McDaniel/Courthouse News Service
The Arizona Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday over whether the state Senate has the authority to conceal records from an audit of the 2020 presidential election. American Oversight, a nonpartisan watchdog group, filed suit in 2021 after Arizona Republicans contracted the private firm Cyber Ninjas to audit the results of the 2020 election. The now-defunct Cyber Ninjas found President Joe Biden was lawfully elected but identified what it considered to be 53,304 questionable ballots. Maricopa County investigated the authenticity of those ballots and determined that only 37 may have been illegally cast. The case landed before the Arizona Supreme Court after the Arizona Court of Appeals and a trial judge rejected the state Senate’s assertion that legislative privilege granted some documents protection against disclosure. The state’s high court has barred the court-ordered release of the records while it considers the case. Andy Gaona of Coppersmith Brockelman, representing American Oversight before the court Tuesday, argued that legislative privilege is not a political tool to hide information. “[Legislative] privilege is not intended to benefit individual legislators; it is not intended to protect them from embarrassment,” Gaona said. “It is not intended to allow them to shield communications as they see fit. What it’s intended to do is to benefit the public by ensuring that their elected representatives — and this is what Appeals says — are not held either criminally or civilly liable for their actions.” Full Article: Arizona justices to decide if public has right to see Cyber Ninja election audit records | Courthouse News ServiceArizona: Maricopa County officials want record ‘corrected’ after election fraud report by Attorney General | Michael McDaniel/Courthouse News Service
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors asked Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich on Wednesday to correct the record after publishing controversial interim findings on the integrity of the 2020 election. Brnovich’s interim findings, sent to the state Senate on April 6, cited concerns over signature verification, chain-of-custody procedures and the use of private money in the election. The bipartisan board’s letter to Brnovich comes after an executive session Wednesday during which the board and the county recorder unanimously decided to refute his findings with correspondence. “It’s disappointing that we have to write this in response to an office that saw fit to take no action for all of 2021 until the politics changed,” said Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican, at the executive meeting Wednesday. “I have been so disappointed on so many levels with Republican electeds, Republican colleagues, Republican friends.” Richer told the board Brnovich’s report caused his staff trouble and threats. “But I’ve never been more disappointed than when somebody omits information, misstates information and besmirches the good name of the hard-working people in my office and reopens vitriol, hate and threats that they shouldn’t have to deal with,” Richer said. Later, the board questioned whether Brnovich released his report after pressure from his party and from former President Donald Trump. Full Article: County officials want record ‘corrected’ after election fraud report by Arizona AG | Courthouse News ServiceArizona GOP candidates sue to block use of voting machines in upcoming midterms | Michael McDaniel/Courthouse News Service
Republican candidates for Arizona governor and secretary of state sued state and county officials to bar the use of electronic voting machines ahead of the midterm election in November. In the federal complaint filed Friday and made available Monday, gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem claim an injunction to stop the use of voting machines is necessary since the “voting system does not reliably provide trustworthy and verifiable election results.” Former President Donald Trump has endorsed Lake and Finchem in their respective races. Lake and Finchem want a federal judge to prohibit the use of electronic voting machines in the state in the upcoming 2022 midterm elections. They claim voting on paper ballots and hand-counting those votes is the only efficient and secure method for proceeding. The candidates claim there is a history of voting machine failure in Arizona and abroad. Additionally, they contend state officials neglected security procedures and claim Dominion Voting Systems, a voting software company, lied and ignored a state legislative subpoena inquiring about the data relating to the 2020 presidential election in Arizona. Dominion is not named as a defendant in the complaint. Lake announced the lawsuit at one of her political rallies in Morristown, Arizona, in March alongside the founder and CEO of MyPillow, Mike Lindell. Lindell teased a class-action suit at the rally, with over 300 plaintiffs supposedly committed. Full Article: Arizona GOP candidates sue to block use of voting machines in upcoming midterms | Courthouse News ServiceArizona lawsuit seeks to ban ballot-counting machines | Howard Fischer/Arizona Daily Star
Two Republicans seeking statewide office are asking a federal judge to block the use of machines to tabulate the votes in Arizona in the 2022 election. The machines are unreliable because they are subject to hacking, contend Kari Lake, a gubernatorial hopeful, and Mark Finchem, who is running for secretary of state. And the use of components in computers from other countries makes them vulnerable, they say. The is an even more basic problem, says Andrew Parker, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on their behalf. The tabulation of votes is an inherently governmental function, he said. Yet by using machines built and programmed by private companies the state has effectively farmed that out that obligation. And what’s worse, Parker said in his filings, is that the technology is kept secret from the public. “This lack of transparency by electronic voting machine companies has created a ‘black box’ system of voting which lacks credibility and integrity,” he wrote in a copy of the lawsuit furnished to Capitol Media Services.
Full Article: Lawsuit seeks to ban ballot-counting machines in Arizona | Govt-and-politics | tucson.com
Arizona: How a Trump ally got his unfounded voting-machine audit push in front of federal cyber agency | Betsy Woodruff Swan, Lee Hudson and Zach Montellaro/Politico
Donald Trump’s top pick to administer Arizona elections in 2024 is more than a garden-variety backer — he played a little-known but notable role in bolstering the former president’s push to subvert the 2020 ballot. It was the waning weeks of the Trump presidency when Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem made an unusual request of the federal agency that deals with cybersecurity threats. Finchem, a longstanding Trump ally now running for Arizona secretary of state, asked the Department of Homeland Security agency to conduct “a full spectrum forensic examination” of voting machines. Finchem’s request was elevated to the acting director of DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Brandon Wales, at 7:59 a.m. on Christmas Eve 2020. And it got his attention. “We need to do a call on this today,” Wales wrote to several people eight minutes later, including the agency’s then-deputy chief external affairs officer. The emails to the DHS agency, known as CISA, are part of a tranche of new communications that show Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his allies’ attempts to get the federal government to help them reverse election results went even broader than previously known. American Oversight, a watchdog group, obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit and shared them with POLITICO.
Arizona Attorney General report finds no evidence of mass fraud in Maricopa County 2020 election results | Vaughn Hillyard and Zoë Richards/NBC
A report issued Wednesday by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich found no evidence of widespread voter fraud or irregularities associated with the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County while raising concerns about some voting procedures. The interim report, six months into an investigation, was detailed in a 12-page letter to Senate President Karen Fann. Brnovich, a Republican, said his office “has left no stone unturned in the aftermath of the 2020 election.” Former President Donald Trump is pursuing a persistent pressure campaign to uncover any illegal activity that would support his false claims that he defeated President Joe Biden in Arizona 17 months ago. Trump lost Arizona by less than 10,500 votes, and a GOP-commissioned review in Maricopa County confirmed Biden’s victory.
Full Article: Arizona AG report finds no evidence of mass fraud in Maricopa County 2020 election resultsEditorial: Those who want accuracy and integrity rage FOR the (vote-counting) machine, not against it. | EJ Montini/Arizona Republic
If there were only a dozen or so of us living a pioneer-like existence in Arizona, or perhaps a few hundred, maybe even a few thousand, a law that allows only for in-person voting, bans electronics and mandates a hand count of ballots that must be completed within 24 hours might make sense. Might. But there are millions of us, which makes the notion of requiring such a thing … insane. So, naturally, that is exactly what some Republicans in the Arizona Legislature are proposing, a return to the Stone Age of democracy, where there is no machine count, no early voting, no mail-in ballots, no common sense. When the bill to do this was revived in the Senate recently, Republican J.D. Mesnard recognized one of the many obvious problems with it, pointing out that in Maricopa County alone there are about 2.5 million votes cast, each of which has 70 to 80 races printed on it. In other words, that’s about 150 million votes to count.
Full Article: Vote counting machines exist for good reason. Why take them away?Arizona Senate panel votes to require all ballots be hand counted | Howard Fischer/Arizona Daily Star
A Senate panel voted late Monday to require all ballots be counted by hand, despite the concession by one Republican who supported it that it just can't be done. The action by the Government Committee came after various people testified about what they contend was fraud in the 2020 election when the official tally showed more Arizonans voted for Joe Biden than Donald Trump. Many Republicans have refused to accept the results despite the fact that various claims of irregularities have either been debunked outright or failed to gather corroborating evidence. House Bill 2289 is a grab-bag of proposed changes to election laws, but there are two key provisions. One would eliminate the opportunity of most Arizonans to cast early ballots, despite the fact that nearly 90% of those who voted in 2020 used that option. Instead, that right would be reserved for those who are in hospitals, nursing homes and those who would be out of state on Election Day. Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, said he has no problem with that. He has questioned the on-demand early voting that has been the law in Arizona since 1991, saying it doesn't have the kind of checks that occur when someone shows up at the polls and has to present identification. Instead, current law requires only that the person sign the outside of the ballot envelope, with that signature compared with others the county election officials have on file. But Mesnard said he is having real heartburn with the other key provision: Having all ballots counted by hand, at each polling place, within 24 hours of the polls being closed at 7 p.m.
Arizona: Maricopa County’s vote-counting machines were not connected to internet, independent review finds | Mary Jo Pitzl and Ronald J. Hansen/Arizona Republic
Maricopa County's vote-counting machines were not connected to the internet during the 2020 election, an independent review has found, further undercutting claims by former President Donald Trump and his allies that the results were "rigged." A trio of technology experts overseen by an impartial special master found no evidence of an internet connection, according to results of the review released Wednesday. That echoes the county's long-standing position as well as the findings of independent audits the county conducted a year ago. It also dispels unproven theories from election deniers that the tabulation machines were hooked up to the internet and therefore susceptible to hacking to throw the election to Joe Biden. Biden won Maricopa County by 45,109 votes, according to the official results. In a statement, Bill Gates, a Republican who chairs the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, said "the unanimous conclusions of this expert panel should be a final stake in the heart of the Senate's so-called 'audit.' "Whenever impartial, independent and competent people have examined the county's election practices, they have found no reason to doubt the integrity of those practices. The Board of Supervisors remains committed to free and fair elections that conform to federal and state laws."
Full Article: Arizona audit: County election machines weren't connected to internetArizona state senators block a dozen GOP-sponsored election reform bills | Michael McDaniel/Courthouse News Service
The Arizona Senate blocked a sweeping slate of GOP-sponsored election reform bills Monday that many state Republicans claimed would have addressed concerns of election integrity, following the state's audit of the 2020 presidential election. Twelve election reform bills failed to pass the Republican-controlled Senate due to nay votes from two Republicans. The surprising result came after sponsors and committees spent weeks amending and prepping the bills for their final Senate read. The GOP-dissenters of the bills were state Senators Michelle Ugenti-Rita, a Republican from Scottsdale, and Paul Boyer, a Republican from Glendale. Both have pushed back against claims from many of their colleagues that Joe's Biden 2020 presidential election was fraudulent, and they have received harsh criticism from the Arizona GOP as a result. "I do have some major concerns with this bill and I have a major concern about what we're doing today," Ugenti-Rita said, explaining her vote against Senate Bill 1570. The bill would have prevented some voting equipment from being connected to the internet, in a bid to safeguard against hacking. "I have never seen this amount of bills for one section of law come up over the course of a few days and just be allowed to die. I think that's poor leadership. I've been here for 11 years. That is not how we do things," Ugenti-Rita said. "I don't think it's fair to the sponsors. I don't think it's fair to the other members. And honestly, I think that there's an agenda behind it and I find it inappropriate." Full Article: Arizona state senators block a dozen GOP-sponsored election reform bills | Courthouse News ServiceArizona Republicans continue pushing voting restrictions, risking backfire | Kirk Ziegler/NPR
By last count at the Arizona State Capitol, close to a hundred voting bills have been introduced, part of a nationwide push by far-right Republican controlled legislatures to pass restrictive voting laws. The swing state of Arizona is front and center — home to 10% of all the proposed legislation — despite two audits showing no problems with the 2020 Presidential Election. One of those, done by the Florida firm, Cyber Ninjas, actually handed more votes to President Biden, who narrowly won Arizona. Critics of the so-called voter reform push see it as part of a slide toward authoritarianism. But State Rep. John Fillmore, an architect of some of the bills currently pending in Arizona, disputes claims that Republicans want to suppress votes. "I want every American to have the opportunity to vote," Fillmore said one sunny morning on the plaza in front of the Arizona House of Representatives. Fillmore represents one of Arizona's most conservative districts around Apache Junction, in the suburban desert east of Phoenix. The businessman often seen in a bolo tie says many of the proposed bills, which range from measures to require all ballots be hand counted to restrictions on ballot drop off boxes, are a response to concerns by his constituents. Full Article: Arizona Republicans continue pushing voting restrictions, risking backfire : NPRJust what Arizona needs: an imaginary ballot box to combat imaginary election fraud | Laurie Roberts/Arizona Republic
Comes now the latest in the Republicans’ unrelenting and at times unhinged assault against Arizona’s elections. Today’s victim: Arizona’s wildly popular early voting system, a decades-old program that was lauded as a national model until Donald Trump lost an election and Republican leaders lost their minds. Senate Bill 1571 would bar voters who receive early ballots from dropping them in the mail. Instead, we’d have to take our ballots to a “smart” drop box. One that doesn’t exist. This plan comes courtesy of Sen. Kelly Townsend, an Apache Junction Republican who is hoping to convince Tucson that she should represent them in Congress next year. This bill is, at least, a step up from her earlier efforts to outright ignore the results of an election. This time, she’s just trying to make it harder for people to vote in the first place. All this, in the name of eliminating all that supposed fraud that not even the Senate’s own ninja auditors could find after an exhaustive examination of Arizona’s 2020 election.
Full Article: An imaginary ballot box to fight imaginary fraud? Genius plan!Arizona: GOP-led Senate panel votes to hand-count all ballots | Bob Christie/Associated Press
Republican state senators on Monday advanced legislation that would require every ballot cast in Arizona's elections to be counted by hand, with GOP proponents who embraced former President Donald Trump's false narrative of massive voter fraud calling it a needed reform. The proposal from Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, was approved by the Senate Government Committee Monday afternoon on a 4-3 vote with no Democratic support. The measure is one of scores of election bills making their way through the Legislature this year. Rogers said her proposal for an all-hand count tabulation was prompted by comments made by Doug Logan, the CEO of the firm the Arizona Senate hired to recount 2.1 million Maricopa County ballots last spring, Cyber Ninjas. “This does away with the machines," Rogers said. “When I interviewed cyber forensic expert Doug Logan ... he told me that the biggest finding he has from the audit is that the more technology we use, the more chance there is to cheat." Logan's hand-counting operation used hundreds of people, lasted weeks and only recounted the presidential and U.S. Senate races. He confirmed that President Joe Biden won, as the original machine count had found. Jen Marson, executive director of the Arizona Association of Counties, said the proposal was simply unworkable. “As we know, we cannot get enough people in many of our counties to conduct the limited hand count that happens post-election,” Marson told the panel. “I struggle to believe that we would have enough people to hand count the entire election and all of the different ballot styles associated with that election in any kind of timely fashion.” Full Article: GOP-led Arizona Senate panel votes to hand-count all ballots | HostedArizona Senate Republicans push bills to combat ‘voter fraud’ | Michael McDaniel/Courthouse News Service
An Arizona Senate committee voted Thursday to advance election reform bills that would prohibit the use of drop boxes and add a precinct tallying requirement prior to county tallying. Senator Wendy Rogers, a Republican from Flagstaff, presented Senate Bills 1058 and 1343 to the Senate Government Committee. “I’m Senator Rogers, I’m the sponsor of this bill,” Rogers said of Senate Bill 1058. “This is basically no more drop boxes. Over.” The former Air Force pilot’s comments were met with applause and laughter from the majority-conservative gallery. The chairwoman reminded the crowd that they must observe decorum in the reading or be excused from the proceedings. The committee took comments from the public, with few dissenters of the bills. One dissenter felt the bills could sway voter engagement. “I’m concerned about this and the other bills regulating voting because new restrictions on voting will have the effect of disenfranchising voters who may feel they can’t meet the challenges, and for no valid reason,” said Judith Simon, who has worked as a teacher for 33 years. “I’m thinking of voters in rural and tribal areas, [and] disabled and elderly voters, who may not read all the particular legal details and just hear, ‘Oh, we can’t use drop boxes at all anymore.’” Full Article: Arizona Senate Republicans push bills to combat ‘voter fraud’ | Courthouse News ServiceArizona: Cyber Ninjas CEO Logan not ready to turn over audit records | Ryan Randazzo/Arizona Republic
Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan says he will not turn over records from the review of Maricopa County's 2020 election until he has a "clear" ruling he can appeal to the highest court. Logan answered questions during a contentious deposition with attorneys for The Arizona Republic and American Oversight. The news organization and the left-leaning nonprofit have battled in court for months for the release of texts, emails and other documents related to the ballot recount and related investigations of the 2020 election ordered by Republicans in the Arizona Senate. "He started off very complacent and happy to answer questions, but as it went on he became more combative," said Craig Hoffman, The Republic's attorney, who questioned Logan during the more than four-hour deposition. "He was clearly frustrated by the end of it." Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah on Jan. 6 found Cyber Ninjas in contempt of an order to turn over the records and imposed a $50,000 a day fine against the company for not producing the records. Since then, The Republic's lawsuit was consolidated with American Oversight's, which is why the lawyers for both parties got to question Logan on Thursday. Logan said Hannah's November order to the company to turn over records was the result of a "biased judge," according to Hoffman. Logan went on "long soliloquies" during the deposition on how he did not believe his company was obligated to turn over records because they should not be public, Hoffman said.
Full Article: Cyber Ninjas CEO Logan not ready to turn over Arizona audit recordsArizona Republicans propose major changes to elections after GOP review finds no fraud | Jane C. Timm/NBC
Arizona Republicans have put forth two dozen bills this month that would significantly change the state's electoral processes after the GOP's unorthodox review of millions of ballots affirmed President Joe Biden's victory and turned up no proof of fraud. Proposals introduced in the state House or the Senate would add an additional layer to the state's voter ID requirement, such as fingerprints, and stipulate the hand counting of all ballots by default. Other legislation would require that paper ballots be printed with holograms and watermarks. Republican legislators argue that the proposals, part an ongoing surge of GOP-led election changes enacted or under consideration across the country, are necessary to enhance election security and prevent fraud. Official counts, audits and accuracy tests have confirmed the election results in Arizona and elsewhere without finding evidence of widespread fraud, and states with Republican and Democratic leaders have certified the results as accurate. Former President Donald Trump, who continues to promote the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, was unable to prove any of the claims in court. A coalition of federal agencies involved in election security, alongside representatives of election officials from each state, said the election was "the most secure in American history."
Full Article: Arizona Republicans propose major changes to elections after GOP review finds no fraudArizona Senate asks Cyber Ninjas if audit files stored in data center | Robert Anglen/Arizona Republic
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann is asking contractors who led the largely discredited audit of Maricopa County's election results if public records are being stored at a data center. In a two-sentence letter Thursday, sent to lead contractor Cyber Ninjas and three other companies that worked on the audit, Fann said Senate lawyers learned the company might have leased a data center. "We recently learned that a data center, possibly leased to Cyber Ninjas, Inc, or StratTech Solutions, may be housing records concerning the Arizona State Senate's audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County," Fann wrote. "Please confirm as soon as possible whether this information is correct and, if so, when and on what terms the Senate may access the facility or its resources." Fann said Thursday she has little information about the data center. She said it's unknown where it is located, why it might have been leased or what records could be stored there. "There's not a lot I can say," she said. "I received info that possible records were stored in a data center." Fann's inquiry comes as the Senate defends itself from two lawsuits, now combined, over access to records in the partisan election review. The Arizona Republic and a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group called American Oversight both sued the Senate to make the records public. The Republic also sued Cyber Ninjas.
Full Article: Arizona Senate asks Cyber Ninjas if audit files stored in data center