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Arizona Attorney General Office alleges unlawful General Election

PHEONIX, AZ, November 21, 2022—In an official letter by Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Wright representing the Elections Integrity Unit of the Office of the Arizona Attorney General, she demands a plethora of election information from Maricopa County officials relating to voting machine problems that raise concerns to the “lawful compliance with Arizona election law.”

“Arizonans deserve a full report and accounting of the myriad problems that occurred in relation to Maricopa County’s administration of the 2022 General Election. As the canvass is looming, and these issues relate to Maricopa County’s ability to lawfully certify election results – the Unit requests a response to the aforementioned issues on or before Maricopa County submits its official canvass to the Secretary of State, which must occur on or before November 28, 2022. See A.R.S. § 16-642(A),” the demand letter states.

The AG’s office demands the following information of the 2022 Midterm election from  Maricopa officials:

  • A list of the 60 of the 201 voting locations that had problems with either ballot-on-demand (BOD) printers or tabulation with specific problems at each voting location
  • A complete reconciliation report of ballots cast against check ins
  • List of any other issues related to the BOD printers
  • Logs of all changes to the BOD printer configuration settings
  • The standards for configuration for the BOD printers
  • The precise time the non-uniform printer configuration settings were found to be in the root cause of the problem
  • The method used to update or reconfigure the printer configuration settings at each voting location and when did they make the changes as each voting location

Originally it was reported that approximately 20% of vote tabulation machines in Maricopa County, with roughly 50% of the state’s population, were rejecting ballots but now the proportion of tabulators with issues in the county is now at least 30%. Also on Election Day, a judge in Maricopa County rejected a Republican request to keep polls open past their usual closing time of 7 p.m., as a remedy to the thousands of people who were unable to vote.

The Associated Press reported about 17,000 ballots were unable to be scanned at some sites but were instead collected and counted by different machines at the county’s main elections office. Those ballots were collected in what was called “box three” and according to the AG’s Office there is sworn testimony that some of these ballots were placed in unsecured duffle bags.

“Finally, please provide a written report regarding how many ballots were commingled, how many ballots were placed inside the black duffle bags intended for tabulated ballots, how and when Maricopa became aware of the related problems, and how these problems were ultimately resolved,” the demand letter states.

Maricopa County officials told reporters in a presser that every ballot cast was counted and that voters had the option to visit any polling place to avoid waiting in long lines due to the voting machine tabulation errors; however, when voters went to other polling places, they were unable to vote.

In a surprise twist, as of Monday, November 21, two Arizona counties – Cochise and Mohave – voted that they will delay certifying their Midterm Election results. In Arizona, a state’s election cannot be certified until all counties have certified their results.

In the wake of the election fiasco, Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates confirmed to local Fox affiliate KSAZ-TV that he moved to an “undisclosed location” with a security detail from the sheriff’s office for his protection.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake told The Daily Mail on Saturday that she still believes she will become governor of Arizona.

“The way they run elections in Maricopa County is worse than in banana republics around this world,” she said in an exclusive interview, referring to Maricopa County.

She added, “And I’ll tell you what, I believe at the end of the day that this will be turned around and I don’t know what the solution will be but I still believe I will become governor, and we are going to restore honesty to our elections.”

As of Monday, November 21, Kari Lake (R) is trailing Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) by 17,116 votes in the governor’s race.

Posted by Kari Lake on her Twitter page posted on Monday, November 21, 2022.
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