Arizona Audit!

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Arizona: Trump and Giuliani Could Face Vote Recount Criminal Probe (businessinsider.com)

Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani could face criminal investigation in Arizona over their attempts to overturn election

  • Donald Trump and his allies could face a criminal investigation in Arizona.
  • Arizona's Secretary of State asked the state Attorney General to investigate Trump allies for violating election laws.
  • Arizona GOP Chair and Trump backer Kelli Ward told Maricopa officials "we need you to stop the counting" the votes.
Donald Trump and key allies could be facing a criminal investigation in Arizona for launching a campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Last week Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs wrote to the state's Attorney General Mark Brnovich to urge him to launch a criminal investigation into Trump and his allies over the potential violations of state election laws.

Hobbs, a Democrat, made the request after reporting from The Arizona Republic revealed details of the high-pressure campaign launched by Trump and a number of his allies.

Hobbs wrote that Trump and individuals, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward, and lawyer Sidney Powell, tried to influence Maricopa officials to stop the counting of ballots.

Hobbs cited comments made by Ward towards the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, including, "We need you to stop the counting" and "I know you don't want to be remembered as the guy who led the charge to certify a fraudulent election."

On Friday, Attorney General Brnovich's office wrote to Hobbs asking for documents related to allegations of violations of election fraud, according to The Arizona Republic.

Brnovich, a Republican running for the Senate, said in the email that Hobbs had not submitted referrals for double voting.

The Arizona Republic said that the latest correspondence from Brnovich is the first public sign that he is examining records after the pressure campaign was revealed.

A spokeswoman for Hobbs told The Arizona Republic that the secretary of state was sending the required records to the Attorney General's Office on Friday.

Donald Trump has long alleged that the results of the 2020 election were fraudulent, particularly in Arizona.

His claims have been widely debunked. An Associated Press investigation revealed that Arizona county election officials found only 182 possible voter fraud cases out of the three million ballots cast in the state in 2020.
 

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Most Arizona Republicans say election audit will show Trump won: poll
Sixty-two percent of Arizona Republicans said in a new OH Predictive Insights poll that Trump will receive more votes in the state after the GOP audit is completed. Another 21 percent of Republicans say Biden’s victory will stand, while another 16 percent are unsure.

The poll underscores the extent to which Arizona Republicans have been swayed by unsubstantiated claims from Trump and his allies that alleged electoral misconduct and irregularities swung the election to Biden in key swing states like Arizona.

Sixty-one percent of Republicans agreed with the statement that “Evidence has been uncovered which shows that the election was stolen from President Trump in a number of states that the media and election officials have called for Joe Biden,” and 55 percent said they have a favorable view of the audit, which was sparked by such claims.

No evidence has emerged that to suggest widespread fraud marred the November presidential election. Biden won the state by over 10,000 votes in 2020, marking the first time a Democratic presidential candidate won Arizona since 1996.
 

mooray

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Sounds about right, 62% are openly and unapologetically retarded, 16% aren't sure if they should be so open about it, and 21% are juuuuuuust smart enough to know they should pretend not to be.
 

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AP FACT CHECK: Trump makes false claims about Arizona audit
TRUMP: “168,000 fraudulent ballots printed on illegal paper (unofficial ballots)”

THE FACTS: All of that is false. The ballots were not unofficial or printed on illegal paper, and even Logan (Cyber Ninjia) never alleged they were fraudulent.

Logan pointed to ballots with the printing slightly offset between the front and back. He claimed this could cause votes to be counted for the wrong candidate if ink from one side bleeds through to another. He said the alignment issues were mostly from polling-place ballots, which are printed onsite, and said about 168,000 ballots were cast that way. The overwhelming majority of Arizona voters cast ballots by mail.

“We are seeing a lot of very thin paper stock being used especially on Election Day,” Logan added.

The allegation harkens back to the debunked “Sharpiegate” conspiracy theory that arose in the days after the election. Election experts say bleed-through doesn’t affect the vote count because bubbles on one side of a ballot don’t align with those on the other. Ballots that can’t be read are flagged and duplicated by a bipartisan team.

Arizona’s election procedures manual says only that ballots “must be printed with black ink on white paper of sufficient thickness to prevent the printing from being discernible on the reverse side the ballot.” Maricopa County uses 80 pound Votesecur paper from Rolland, which is among the papers approved by Dominion Voting Systems, which makes the county’s tabulation equipment, said Fields Moseley, a county spokesman.

Logan did not provide any evidence that alignment problems affected the vote count and said the issue needs more analysis.


TRUMP, citing “74,000 mail in ballots received that were never mailed (magically appearing ballots).”

THE FACTS: No, there were no magically appearing ballots. He is alleging that the number of filled-out ballots received in the mail by election officials exceeded the number of people who had asked earlier for mail-in ballots, by 74,000. But that’s not at all what happened.

The claim mischaracterizes reports created for political parties to track who has voted early so they can target their get-out-the-vote efforts.

One report tracks all requests that voters make for early ballots, either by mail or in person, up to 11 days before the election. The other report tracks all ballots received through the day before the election. That leaves a 10-day window during which people who vote in-person but don’t request a mail ballot would appear on one report but not the other.

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TRUMP, claiming “11,000 voters were added to the voter rolls AFTER the election and still voted.”

THE FACTS: There’s nothing untoward about voters rolls growing after Election Day. The rolls are simply updated to reflect people whose provisional ballots are added to the tally after election officials verify that they were eligible to vote.

The allegation that the updated tally was the result of electoral wrongdoing first came from Logan this past week, when he told state lawmakers of “11,326 people that did not show up on the Nov. 7 version of the voter rolls, after votes were cast, but then appeared on the Dec. 4 voter rolls.”

Maricopa County officials said Logan is probably referring to provisional ballots, which are cast by people who do not appear on the voter rolls or don’t have the proper identification on Election Day. They’re only counted if the voter later shows he or she was eligible to vote. To be eligible, such voters must have registered before the deadline.

“These go through a rigorous verification process to make sure that the provisional ballots cast are only counted if the voter is eligible to vote in the election,” Maricopa County officials wrote on Twitter. “This happens after Election Day. Only eligible voters are added to the voter rolls.”

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TRUMP, alleging “all the access logs to the machines were wiped, and the election server was hacked during the election.”

THE FACTS: That flies in the face of the evidence. Maricopa County’s election server is not connected to the internet and independent auditors found no evidence the election server was hacked.

Trump’s hacking allegation refers to the unauthorized download of public data from the county’s voter registration system. That system, which is connected to the internet and broadly accessible to political parties and election workers, is not linked to the election management system, the web of ballot counters, computers and servers that tallies votes.

The election management system is “air gapped,” or kept disconnected from the rest of the county’s computer network and the wider internet. Two firms certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to test voting systems found Maricopa County’s machines were not connected to the internet and did not have malicious hardware or software installed.

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TRUMP: “Arizona shows Fraud and Voting Irregularities many times more than would be needed to change the outcome of the Election.”

THE FACTS: Not so. The number of potential fraud cases is far smaller than President Joe Biden’s margin of victory in Arizona.

County election officials identified 182 cases where voting problems were clear enough that they referred them to investigators for further review, according to an Associated Press investigation. So far, only four cases have led to charges, including those identified in a separate state investigation. No one has been convicted. No person’s vote was counted twice.

Biden won Arizona by 10,457 votes out of 3.4 million cast. Of the four cases that have resulted in criminal charges, two involved Democratic voters and two involved Republicans.

 

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Arizona Senate Email Communications Regarding Maricopa County Partisan ‘Audit’
Records from the Arizona Senate in response to American Oversight’s request for select state senators’ communications regarding the partisan “audit” of Maricopa County’s 2020 election results.


Since I don't have the time to go through it,

American Oversight Releases Preliminary Report on Arizona “Audit”
Drawing from those initial records and public reporting, American Oversight has identified three primary categories of issues that compromise the credibility of the audit and cast doubt on the legitimacy of potential findings that audit leaders may release.
  • Predetermined conclusions. Emails obtained by American Oversight suggest that top audit officials, including Fann, began the process with a predetermined objective of questioning President Joe Biden’s electoral victory in Arizona and finding evidence to support that conclusion.
  • Involvement of conspiracy theorists. Records show that election conspiracy theorists supporting former President Donald Trump’s false claim of a stolen election, including Jovan Hutton Pulitzer, have been in contact with senior audit leaders.
  • Problematic canvassing operations. While plans for door-to-door canvassing of Maricopa County voters had been initially dropped after election watchdogs raised concerns about voter intimidation, emails show that audit officials were aware of in-person canvassing efforts run by political allies.
 

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Arizona secretary of state to Trump before rally: 'Take your loss and accept it and move on'
Trump is heading to Phoenix on Saturday for a “Rally to Save Our Elections!” event hosted by the conservative group Turning Point Action. He is likely to touch on his baseless claims that widespread voter fraud occurred during last year’s election.

“How dangerous is it for Donald Trump to be coming to your state tomorrow, do you think?” CNN's Jim Acosta asked Hobbs on “The Situation Room” on Friday.

“Well, it is dangerous. I'm glad you pointed that out. But the bottom line is it doesn't matter what he says or does. Nothing is going to change the outcome of the 2020 election. But it also doesn't change how dangerous this is,” said Hobbs, who is running in Arizona’s 2022 gubernatorial race.

“The bottom line is that Arizonians are tired of being led by conspiracy theorists. They don't support this fake audit, and they're ready for leaders who are going to put those partisan games aside and deal with real issues,” Hobbs continued.

“So what is your message to Donald Trump ahead of this rally? Don't come?” Acosta asked later.

“Well, I mean, like most grown-ups, take your loss and accept it and move on. ... Nothing that's going on here is going to change the outcome, and, really, this is nothing more than being a sore loser,” Hobbs said.
 

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Wisconsin Republican promises forensic election audit
The Republican head of the Wisconsin Assembly elections committee said Monday she will ensure there is a “comprehensive, forensic examination” of ballots cast in the 2020 presidential election at the same time the state’s nonpartisan audit bureau conducts a review.

One of the loudest critics of how the election was run is Rep. Janel Brandtjen, chair of the Assembly elections committee. She said in a statement Monday that her committee will request additional materials to conduct a deeper review.

The committee’s investigation is in addition to a review ordered by Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, being done by three retired police detectives and overseen by a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, and the independent review by the audit committee.

Another separate, independent investigation is being done by several individuals convinced there was widespread fraud in Wisconsin, despite no evidence. That effort is being led by Peter Bernegger, who was convicted of mail fraud and bank fraud in federal court in Mississippi in 2009.

“Voters have made it clear that they want a thorough, cyber-forensic examination of tabulators, ballot marking devices and other election equipment, which I will be helping facilitate,” Brandtjen said. “IP addresses, chain of custody on ballots and audit trail logs must be thoroughly inspected by cyber-audit technicians in order to provide confidence for voters in our elections, both completed and upcoming.”

 

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what are the odds that biden wins yet again
With the Republican voting restrictions being put in place it might be tight.

Few AZ voter fraud cases, discrediting Trump’s claims
Arizona county election officials have identified fewer than 200 cases of potential voter fraud out of more than 3 million ballots cast in last year’s presidential election, further discrediting former President Donald Trump’s claims of a stolen election as his allies continue a disputed ballot review in the state’s most populous county.

An Associated Press investigation found 182 cases where problems were clear enough that officials referred them to investigators for further review. So far, only four cases have led to charges, including those identified in a separate state investigation. No one has been convicted. No person’s vote was counted twice.

While it’s possible more cases could emerge, the numbers illustrate the implausibility of Trump’s claims that fraud and irregularities in Arizona cost him the state’s electorate votes. In final, certified and audited results, Biden won 10,400 more votes than Trump out of 3.4 million cast.

AP’s findings align with previous studies showing voter fraud is rare. Numerous safeguards are built into the system to not only prevent fraud from happening but to detect it when it does.

The results in Arizona are similar to early findings in other battleground states. Local election officials in Wisconsin identified just 27 potential cases of voter fraud out of 3.3 million ballots cast last November, according to records obtained by the AP under the state’s open records law. Potential voter fraud cases in other states where Trump and his allies mounted challenges have so far amounted to just a tiny fraction of Trump’s losing margin in those states.
 
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Arizona Senate Subpoenas Maricopa County Routers
Arizona Senate Republican leaders have issued a subpoena to Maricopa County officials looking for routers and other data as part of the ongoing audit of the 2020 election, the Arizona Republic is reporting.

The newspaper said state Senate President Karen Fann and Senate Judiciary Chairman Warren Petersen demanded that the county board of supervisors make the information available for a 1 p.m. hearing on Monday.

And Bill Gates, a Republican member of the board, confirmed the new development in an interview on CNN.

"Right before I came on here, the board of supervisors received another subpoena from the state Senate ordering us to turn over the routers, in addition to some other information,” he said. “And they threaten us in these papers that if we do not turn those over by Aug. 2 — so that’s next Monday — then we could be held in contempt.”

County spokesperson Fields Moseley told the Republic that the county "has already provided everything competent auditors would need to confirm the accuracy and security of the 2020 election."

"The board will review the materials requested with our legal team and respond in the coming days," Fields said.

"Why won't the RINO Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in Arizona give the routers?" Trump asked in a statement from his Save America PAC. "What are they trying to hide? They are fighting for life or death. What is going on?"

"Give the routers!" Trump's statement continued. "Doesn't this mean that the voting was, despite their statements to the contrary, connected to the Internet? The voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election was monumental, and the facts are coming out daily!"

The Republican-held Arizona Senate originally subpoenaed the internet routers from the county polling places, but the county rejected the request, claiming it would cost $6 million to replace them.

According to the Washington Examiner, Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel has argued that providing the routers “could jeopardize the security of law enforcement data.”
In addition to the routers, the new subpoena demands any information about data breaches to the county’s election system, the Republic said. The subpoena also wants ballot envelopes with voter signatures.
 

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DOJ: State audits of 2020 election could violate federal law
The Justice Department on Wednesday issued a second warning to states that so-called audits of the 2020 election could violate federal laws, emphasizing the agency's intent to protect voting rights.

Arizona's GOP-led audit triggered a warning from the DOJ in May. The state Senate turned over 2.1 million subpoenaed ballots from its largest county to an outside contractor whose CEO promoted election conspiracy theories.
  • Pro-Trump officials in Pennsylvania conducted an audit and Wisconsin has advocated for a similar review.
What they're saying: The agency is "concerned that some jurisdictions conducting [audits] may be using, or proposing to use, procedures that risk violating the Civil Rights Act," which requires election officials to retain federal election records for at least 22 months after an election.
  • The risk of losing or destroying such materials "is exacerbated if the election records are given to private actors who have neither experience nor expertise in handling such records and who are unfamiliar with the obligations imposed by federal law."
  • The guidance also warns against attempts to intimidate voters, citing reports of proposals to contact people in-person to verify their eligibility.
    • "[W]hen such investigative efforts are directed, or are perceived to be directed, at minority voters or minority communities, they can ... can deter them from seeking to vote in the future," the guidance noted.
  • "Jurisdictions that authorize or conduct audits must ensure that the way those reviews are conducted has neither the purpose nor the effect of dissuading qualified citizens from participating in the electoral process."
"The right of all eligible citizens to vote is the central pillar of our democracy, and the Justice Department will use all of the authorities at its disposal to zealously guard that right," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
  • "The guidances issued today describe certain federal laws that help ensure free, fair, and secure elections. Where violations of such laws occur, the Justice Department will not hesitate to act."
Worth noting: It's unclear what kind of action the DOJ would take if states fail to comply, per BuzzFeed.
 
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