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After the bitterly divided Arizona Senate voted along to partisan lines to force Maricopa County election officials to hand over their 2020 election materials, incl’g 2.1M ballots, it has proven itself to be an unworthy guardian of not only paper ballots, but also our democracy.
First, they threatened the R-controlled Maricopa C’ty B’d of Supervisors who resisted the senate’s attempts to take the ballots & insisted that MC’s election was free & fair w/ contempt charges & some senators even threatened to have the superv’s arrested. https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2021/02/07/arizona-senate-contempt-vote-election-results-explained/4414408001/
And when the court compelled MC officials to agree to transfer the ballots, the senate selected an election fraud conspiracy theorist to conduct an “audit.” https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.azcentral.com/amp/4825258001
We joined with @CarterCenter, @VerifiedVoting and RSM Election Solutions to raise concerns about the audit & the selection of an auditor that lacked independence, objectivity and substantive elections auditing experience in a letter to AZ Senate Pres Fann. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/brennan-center-sends-letter-arizona-state-senate-election-audits-0
The chief election official for Arizona, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, informed the senate of its custodial duties to preserve and retain these materials and urged the senate to take commonsense steps before their audit, e.g., publicly sharing the audit procedures. https://twitter.com/secretaryhobbs/status/1385353574842986497
Ill-prepared, the senate spent weeks simply searching for a location to conduct the audit. During this time, the ballots remained securely stored in MC’s vault, senators stoked conspiracy theories & 3 dumpster diving patriots attempted to break into MC HQ. https://www.12news.com/mobile/article/news/politics/elections/maricopa-county-recorder-responds-to-false-voter-fraud-accusations/75-2140c58d-9535-43fe-820f-512d124ed003
After securing a location, the AZ Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the senate and its agents failed to ensure adequate physical security, with reporters roaming freely throughout the site, seemingly feet away from unguarded ballots. https://twitter.com/morganloewcbs5/status/1385583799606513664
To date, aud’rs have refused to disclose the audit procedures. The limited public docum’n incls the Cyber Ninjas cntrt (signed by Pres Fann) that outlines plans to deploy agents of the gov’t to MC residents homes to “collect information” abt voter history. https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/cyber-ninjas-statement-of-work/2013a82d-a2cf-48be-8e9f-a26bfd5143e5/
The contracted work will cost the senate 150k, but there are many add’l costs. And just days after the AZ legislature prohibited local election officials from accepting private funding, an @OANN host started raising private money for the senate’s “audit.” https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.12news.com/amp/article/news/politics/sunday-square-off/promoter-of-false-election-fraud-claims-is-raising-money-for-arizona-senate-gops-election-audit-is-that-even-legal/75-a00e4e89-20d8-4588-b91d-50a32abbe9e8
And the auditors have restricted public access to the audit. The press just recently gained access and continue to serve the public during this process. Many thanks to the incredible local reporters, incl’g @brahmresnik @jeremyduda @JenAFifield @morganloewcbs5 @Garrett_Archer ++
And I joined with many election administration, nat’l security and voting machine experts to raise concerns about the audit’s lack of transparency and request that nonpartisan experts be permitted access. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/brennan-center-sends-letter-arizona-state-senate-election-audit
Bc of @JenAFifield, we know that aud’rs originally equipped ballot counters w/ blue pens, enabl’g them to intentionally, or unint’ly, make marks on ballots that are indistinguishable fr voter mks (which the aud’rs were warned against doing pre-audit) https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.azcentral.com/amp/7354216002
And we recently learned that auditors are intentionally exposing the ballots (and the marks on the ballots) to ultraviolet light. This process causes the ballot paper, and the marks on the ballots, to deteriorate. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.azcentral.com/amp/4880548001
ALL of this is very troubling so today @BrennanCenter joined w/ @civilrightsorg & @protctdemocracy to request that @CivilRights send election monitors to the AZ Coliseum. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/election-experts-send-letter-department-justice-arizona-audits
