Former Secretary of State Ken Bennett last week temporarily stepped down from his role as liaison to the senate's self-styled audit of Maricopa County votes. For the past five weeks, workers from Cyber Ninjas, a small private cybersecurity company based in Sarasota, Florida, have gathered in an arena to re-recount all the ballots nearly 2.1 million at the behest of the states Republican senators. So far this year, at least 18 Republican-led states have passed legislation curbing ballot access, moves they say are needed to ensure election integrity. Whats happening in Arizona is also a kind of recount, but it doesnt reflect a traditional one of those either. 5. The top priority one that Trump seized on even before the final report came out is mail-in ballots cast from a voters prior address. The state Senate that ordered the process is calling it an audit, and all the ballots are being recounted, but its not really an audit or a recount its a partisan inquisition. 2023 FOX Television Stations, from WED 10:00 PM MST until THU 9:00 AM MST, Western Pima County including Ajo/Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Tohono O'odham Nation including Sells, Tucson Metro Area including Tucson/Green Valley/Marana/Vail, South Central Pinal County including Eloy/Picacho Peak State Park, Southeast Pinal County including Kearny/Mammoth/Oracle, Cochise County considers hand-counting ballots, but lawyer says no, Arizona GOP candidates Lake, Finchem appeal ruling against hand counts, Arizona Supreme Court makes ruling on Maricopa County 2020 election audit lawsuit, Top election officials in Yavapai County leave amid threats, January 6 hearing: Local 'heroes' rebuffed Trump, then faced threats, Records show coordinated Arizona ballot collection scheme, Ginni Thomas emails deepen her involvement in 2020 election, Arizona AG Brnovich's letter offers no proof of 2020 election fraud, Arizona election audit: Final report finds no Maricopa County data issues, Arizona Senate GOP revives controversial election bill, GOP tensions rise as Arizona Senate votes down more election bills, Arizona Supreme Court wont consider Cyber Ninjas appeal of daily $50K fine, Arizona high court to decide if Senate 2020 election audit records kept secret, No charges for 151 Arizona votes vetted over 2020 election fraud claims, Cyber Ninjas chief wants to start new firm with same workers, Cyber Ninjas faces daily $50K fine over Arizona election audit records, Maricopa Co. releases new report on 2020 election, deems many claims misleading; here's what you need to know, Lawyer for Arizona Senate election audit firm wants to quit, Far too little vote fraud to tip 2020 election to Trump, AP review finds, Arizona Senate can't claim legislative privilege for 2020 election audit records, judge rules, Wes Moore sworn in as Marylands first Black governor, Deaf student's interpreter lawsuit at center of Supreme Court case, Alaskan aurora chaser gets amazing display right on his doorstep, 'My choice is to stay true to myself': Flyers' Provorov cites religion for boycott on Pride night, Racine police shooting; officers wounded, man arrested, Athena Brownfield: Caregiver for missing Oklahoma girl arrested in Arizona, Woman charged with attempted murder of boyfriend who peed in bed, Athena Brownfield: Man arrested in Phoenix beat missing Oklahoma girl to death, court documents say, TSA finds 84 mm caliber weapon in checked luggage at Texas airport, Super Bowl LVII: Federal officials measuring radiation in the Phoenix area; here's what you should know, Suspect shot during attempted robbery at Avondale gas station, 2 arrested months after deadly El Mirage shooting, Teen accused of opening fire on ASU campus indicted by grand jury, Maricopa County deputy hurt in Tempe crash. In fact, the report says that, based on a hand count of all 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County, official winner Joe Biden tallied 99 more votes than the county recorded and Donald Trump had 261 fewer votes than officially recorded. These include 23,344 mail-in ballots that were voted from someone's prior address and more than 10,000 voters who potentially voted in multiple counties, according to the draft report. The Cyber Ninjas report suggests 23,344 ballots were cast by voters who no longer live at the address at which they are registered. The Arizona Auditor General is seeking proposals for services of certified public accounting firms to perform annual financial statement and compliance audits and annual expenditure limitation report examinations for each of the following auditees: Yavapai County, Gila County Provisional Community College District, Graham County Community College District, and Santa Cruz County Provisional . Audit Manager jobs 54,382 open jobs Process Manager jobs 252,154 open jobs . The Cyber Ninjas are raising that money from anonymous third parties . "While it is possible for multiple individuals to share all these details, it is not common, and this list should be fully reviewed,'' it says. "Because I think we all know what happened in 2020, he told Bannon. . Fann said she had not yet read the report and had no immediate comment. "Those numbers were close, within a few hundred.". In the words of the auditors themselves: [T]here were no substantial differences between the hand count of the ballots provided and the official canvass results for the County. In both cases, there was no evidence of "data deletion, data purging, data overwriting, or other destruction of evidence or obstruction of the audit," the report said. She said longtime elections director Lynn Constabile is leaving for the same reason. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Per CNN, the first semi truck full of 2020 election ballots rolled slowly through the Arizona State Fairgrounds on Friday, past the "Crazy Times Carnival". The revelations first published by The Washington Post on May 20 show that Ginni Thomas was more involved than previously known in efforts, based on unsubstantiated claims of fraud, to overturn Bidens victory and keep then-President Donald Trump in office. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday he had no knowledge at the time of any classified documents taken to the Penn Biden Center, after some classified documents from President Joe Biden's time as vice president were discovered at the center. PHOENIX Adjudicated ballots are a key issue in the Arizona presidential election audit because of unfounded allegations that those ballots could have been fraudulently altered to benefit Joe. So. OAN, Arizona's audit partner, suggests 'radical Democrats' should be executed once evidence of a 'coup' is unearthed. She produced a report claiming that, based on a sample of homes checked, there were more than 173,000 ballots that were lost and more than 96,000 ghost voters, ballots that were cast by people who did not exist. The advice from Chief Deputy Cochise County Attorney Christine Roberts seemed to stun two members of the county board who are pushing the hand-count. Although Trump carried Texas, Biden won three of the targeted counties. Perhaps the most interesting episode so far. Somethings widespread, all right, and rather fragrant, as well. She said the county has a multi-step procedure for verifying signatures, comparing the signatures on the envelope with what already is on file. "This was Donald Trump's best chance to prove his cases of elections being rigged and fraudulent and they failed," Ginsberg said on a media call organized by the States United Democracy Center, a nonpartisan policy group. But Fann did not dispute the key finding about the outcome of the races. The report wont mollify election deniers. The so-called "audit" in Arizona of Maricopa County's 2020 general election ballots started as a court battle between the state Senate and the county board of supervisors. A full hand-count of ballots and review of election equipment done by contractors hired by the Senate and released in September found no major problems. Breaking News. REUTERS/Mike Blake. 2023 FOX Television Stations, from WED 10:00 PM MST until THU 9:00 AM MST, Western Pima County including Ajo/Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Tohono O'odham Nation including Sells, Tucson Metro Area including Tucson/Green Valley/Marana/Vail, South Central Pinal County including Eloy/Picacho Peak State Park, Southeast Pinal County including Kearny/Mammoth/Oracle, The report compiled by an outside special master, hired by the Senate and released in September, Senate President Karen Fann had cut a deal with the county board last August, he demanded the county turn over thousands of signatures, Wes Moore sworn in as Marylands first Black governor, Deaf student's interpreter lawsuit at center of Supreme Court case, Alaskan aurora chaser gets amazing display right on his doorstep, 'My choice is to stay true to myself': Flyers' Provorov cites religion for boycott on Pride night, Racine police shooting; officers wounded, man arrested, Athena Brownfield: Caregiver for missing Oklahoma girl arrested in Arizona, Woman charged with attempted murder of boyfriend who peed in bed, Athena Brownfield: Man arrested in Phoenix beat missing Oklahoma girl to death, court documents say, Super Bowl LVII: Federal officials measuring radiation in the Phoenix area; here's what you should know, Dolly Parton adds new baking mixes to Duncan Hines lineup, Suspect shot during attempted robbery at Avondale gas station, 2 arrested months after deadly El Mirage shooting, Teen accused of opening fire on ASU campus indicted by grand jury, Maricopa County deputy hurt in Tempe crash. Newly obtained documents from Arizona state lawmakers and leaders of the phony audit show that top Republican officials, Trump advisers, and other senior party figures were pushing for the. Salmon also said the county didnt cooperate. Findings from the Arizona audit released in September confirmed Biden beat Trump in the state. The. A draft report of the state Senate's audit report states that results from a grassroots voter-canvassing effort were used to enhance the report, but that text is omitted from the final report. All quotes delayed a minimum of 15 minutes. It is FREE! Im not going to say in a verbal interview what Im going to be putting in writing for the report, Bennett said. Peoplevoted for Republicans down ballot, and they didnt vote for President Trump or Martha McSally. Since March 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and through September 2022, the federal government has allocated through various acts $77.8 billion to the State of Arizona and its local governments, businesses, and individuals for COVID-19 response and relief efforts. See here for a complete list of exchanges and delays. Nearly six months after President Joe Biden won Arizona by nearly 10,500 votes and Maricopa County by over 45,100 votes, auditors are set to hand count 2.1 million ballots in the county. Just over 1 percent of voters who cast a ballot in the 2020 elections may have moved since a figure well within the normal range of the share of people who change residences in a given year. Photo: Jeremy Duda/Axios. In many instances, the county said the audit team made glaring mistakes because it didn't understand election policies and procedures. The conclusion will dismay Trump supporters who had pushed for the review, many in the expectation that it would prove his unfounded assertions that he was robbed of re-election due to orchestrated fraud. Kevin McCarthy Is Speaker, But He's Got A Tough Job Ahead. In Arizona, for an election in which more than 25,000 ballots are cast, such as the presidential election, the margin of victory must be 200 or fewer votes. "That should be the end of the story. The Arizona Republic has gone to court to demand records from the state Senate and one of its contractors to shed light on the audit of 2020 election results, much of which has been kept from. Not a single discrepancy was found. PHOENIX - A report that was among the final items on the Arizona Senates partisan review of the 2020 election prompted by former President Donald Trumps loss has found no evidence that ballot tabulation equipment used by the states most populous county was connected to the internet. Ayyadurai, however, did not have access to county files that have voters signatures to compare with those on the envelopes. OAN's Christina Bobb has been covering the Arizona election audit and fundraising for the effort. The county blasted the 2020 election "audit" as "this adventure in never-never land.". The Maricopa County canvass count reflects that reality:It recorded 2,089,563 votes cast in both the presidential contest and the Senate contest including 21,419 non-votes or write-ins in the presidential contest and 40,964 non-votes or write-ins in the Senate contest. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar land Oversight committee assignments after 2023 stamp price increases are about to kick in, Watch live: White House monkeypox response team holds briefing, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. But the majority of Republicans have rejected the review's results, believing instead the recount. After publicly expressing "grave concerns" over Arizona's audit of the 2020 election results, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) was "stripped" of her ability to "defend election lawsuits" by. Especially if you read the footnote accompanying the12-page report'slone sentence about election fraud the one that references a report on all the fraud that Brnovichs Elections Integrity Unit has uncovered in the 2020 presidential election. The report says the Election Integrity Unit review has uncovered instances of election fraud, Ward reported to the party faithful. What eye color is the rarest in the world? Support local journalism: Subscribe to azcentral.com today. But Megan Gilbertson of the Maricopa County Recorder's Office told Capitol Media Services late Thursday that the entire premise of that is flawed. 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