Tag: Mark Finchem

Maricopa County Report Identifies Glaring Election Errors as Lake, Finchem Challenges Continue

Just the News

While Maricopa County released a report on the election failures of the 2022 elections, Arizona election lawsuits continue as 2022 GOP nominees Kari Lake and Mark Finchem file motions for reconsideration in their respective races for governor and secretary of state. On Monday, Maricopa County released a report by former Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor on the causes of the ballot printer issues that occurred at more than 70 vote centers on Election Day last year, which resulted in long lines as many voters’ ballots were unreadable by tabulator machines.

Read More

Mark Finchem Adds New Exhibits in Election Contest, Including Expert’s Declaration That Printer Settings Were ‘Intentionally Changed’

Rachel Alexander

Former Republican candidate for Arizona Secretary of State Mark Finchem, who is contesting his loss last fall to Democrat Adrian Fontes, filed a Notice of Supplemental Authority and Evidence in Support of Contestant’s Motion for Reconsideration last week. A Maricopa County judge dismissed his lawsuit in December. Finchem included 10 exhibits consisting of mostly declarations from observers, election workers, and experts, including one who believes the election printer settings in Maricopa County were deliberately modified to create misreads of the ballots. 

Exhibit K was a declaration from Bob Hughes, who has 50 years in the printing industry and 16 years printing ballots for the Maricopa County Elections Department. Last month, Hughes and a team examined the Logic & Accuracy tests that were performed immediately prior to the election, the ballots used for testing, the certification reports for each voting center, and the tabulator reports printed from the testing. He concluded, “An intentional change was made to the printers affecting the DAY OF Election ballots.”

Read More

New ‘Late Exit’ Poll Finds Eight Percent More Arizona Voters Said They Voted for Lake over Hobbs

Rachel Alexander

Rasmussen Reports and College Republicans United issued the results of a type of “late exit” poll on Friday, revealing that likely Arizona voters said they voted for former Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake over Governor Katie Hobbs 51 percent to 43 percent.

Also, the poll found these likely Arizona voters voted for Abe Hamadeh and Mark Finchem over their Democratic opponents who won those respective state races. 

Read More

Mark Finchem Responds to Sanctions for Bringing Election Challenge over Voter Disenfranchisement in His Race

Rachel Alexander

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Julian awarded sanctions last week against Mark Finchem and his attorney Tom McCauley over Finchem’s lawsuit challenging his election loss in the Arizona Secretary of State’s race. Democrat Adrian Fontes, who won the race, asked the court for sanctions in December. Finchem and McCauley will be required to pay attorneys fees, the legal costs of Fontes’, and then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ office defending against the lawsuit. Finchem issued a statement after the ruling.

Read More

In Similar Cases to Lake’s and Finchem’s Lawsuit over Electronic Voting Machine Readers, Judges Did Not Order Sanctions Against Attorneys

Rachel Alexander

The judge in Kari Lake’s election challenge lawsuit declined to award sanctions against her attorneys, although he did order her team to pay the costs of the government defendants. However, in a lawsuit Lake filed earlier this year with Mark Finchem contesting the use of electronic voting machine readers, U.S District Judge John Tuchi, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, sanctioned her attorneys. 

That lawsuit was filed in April and Tuchi dismissed it in August. Maricopa County asked for sanctions on the grounds that attorneys brought claims to court that were “demonstrably false,” citing “vague” allegations that machine counting can produce inaccurate results. Tuchi said the attorneys acted “recklessly” and in “bad faith.” He ordered Lake and Finchem’s lawyers to pay Maricopa County’s attorneys fees. He warned others considering similar lawsuits, “It is to penalize specific attorney conduct with the broader goal of deterring similarly baseless filings initiated by anyone, whether an attorney or not.”

Read More

Maricopa County Judge Dismisses Mark Finchem’s Election Lawsuit, Affirms Fontes as Arizona Secretary of State-Elect

Christina Botteri

In a 13-page decision Friday, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Iyer Julian dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit challenging the certified election outcome by former Republican secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem, KOLD News 13 reported.

Julian’s ruling rejected Finchem’s allegations of misconduct and election administration errors, goes on to forbid Finchem from refiling a future complaint on the same grounds. Judge Julian also and affirmed Democrat Adrian Fontes is the state’s Secretary of State-elect.

Read More

Mark Finchem Files Lawsuit Contesting Election Results, Contends at Least 60,624 Ballots Were Not Counted in Maricopa County

Rachel Alexander

Three of the Trump-endorsed candidates in Arizona who lost their races filed lawsuits contesting the election results. Gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh, and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem all filed lawsuits on Friday.

Finchem’s complaint, which was filed jointly in Maricopa County Superior Court with Jeff Zink, a Republican candidate who lost his race challenging Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-07), named Gallego, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who was declared the gubernatorial winner over Lake, and incoming-Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, who defeated Finchem, as defendants.

Zink was later dropped from the complaint in an amended complaint filed on Monday.

Read More

Candidates Hopeful for Election Challenges After Certification, Since Early Lawsuits Had Less Statutory Backing

Rachel Alexander

The Trump-endorsed slate of candidates in Arizona’s top races who allegedly lost their races have started pursuing legal challenges over what they believe was an election rampant with voter disenfranchisement and suppression. One of the first challenges was turned away on Tuesday as premature, a lawsuit by Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh and the Republican National Committee (RNC), but election law attorneys say this should not be taken as a sign that there are no valid grounds to overturn the election. 

Bob Brickman, an election and regulatory attorney in Phoenix, told The Arizona Sun Times while he “understands the strategy of suing now, since fraud really should be challengeable any time, Arizona law is clear that election challenges cannot be brought until five days after after the state has certified the results, which is scheduled for Dec. 5.” 

Read More

Kari Lake Campaign Says Sanction Against Her Is a Message to ‘Shut Up’ and ‘Not Come to Court’

Neil Jones

Arizona’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, Kari Lake, and Secretary of State nominee Mark Finchem have been sanctioned by an Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge, John Tuchi, in a lawsuit they filed to prevent the use of electronic voting machines in the Arizona election. The Lake Campaign said this is a message to those who lose an election not to take their case to court.

“This case is not about money or gain. It was essentially a public interest lawsuit seeking electoral integrity. It is very very rare to sanction a party in public interest suits,” said the Lake Campaign in a statement shared with the Arizona Sun Times. “All in all this reads like an angry Obama appointee who wants to send a message. The message is if you lose shut up and don’t come to court. The message is not that you lost a case or acted in bad faith.”

Read More

Mainstream Media Outlets Project Democrat Wins in Two Arizona Races as 390,000 Ballots Remain Uncounted

Neil Jones

Maricopa County continues to drop nightly ballot dumps, with Friday’s results adding another 74,000 votes to the total, allegedly including ballots dropped off on Election Day. Despite predictions that tonight’s dump would swing in Republicans’ favor, Democrats cling to a lead across the significant races.

“They want you to be demoralized. There’s no reason to be. Our path to victory lies in the overwhelmingly red votes that Maricopa County either hasn’t counted or has deliberately chosen not to release. Hold the line,” said the campaign of Republican Gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake.

Read More

No Clear Winner Emerges in Gubernatorial Race as Arizona Vote-Counting Stretches into Night Three

Neil Jones

Maricopa County released another batch of counted ballots Thursday night, which show a slight favor for Democrat gubernatorial nominee Katie Hobbs. However, the gap was not big enough for Hobbs to jet out in front of her Republican opponent, Kari Lake, whose campaign said marks the end of the trail for Hobbs.

” This Maricopa County drop is not nearly what [Katie Hobbs] needed. This ends tomorrow,” tweeted the lake campaign.

Read More

Arizona Political Operatives Optimistic for Republicans as They Analyze the Slow Release of Election Results

Rachel Alexander

Although there are still a few races in Arizona that have not been called yet, many analysts believe overall it’s looking like good results for MAGA candidates. The rate of return of ballots in the remaining precincts appears to be heavily favoring Republicans, since a large portion of them are from red counties and people who voted in person on election day. 

George Khalaf, managing partner of The Resolute Group and owner of the Data Orbital polling company, told The Arizona Sun Times he was “confident all statewide Republicans (outside of Masters/Finchem) will prevail.” He said, “I believe there is still a path for Masters/Finchem but that will depend a lot on how well they with the Early Ballots dropped off on Election Day. When it is all said and done, I think Kari wins by around 3 percent (close to our final poll).” 

Read More

Gubernatorial Hopefuls Kari Lake and Katie Hobbs Remain Neck and Neck in Night Two of Arizona Vote Counting

Neil Jones

After the Wednesday evening ballot dump by Maricopa County election officials, the race for Arizona’s governor between Republican Kari Lake and Democrat Katie Hobbs is still too close to call. However, Kari Lake’s campaign remains confident her victory will come.

“Good. Now that we’ve gotten out of that way, [Maricopa County] can start counting the voters who dropped their ballots off on Election Day. They will break heavily in our direction. We remain confident about the trajectory of this race,” tweeted Lake’s campaign in response to the new votes.

Read More

Although Early Ballots Favored Democrats, Mark Finchem Says He Is Optimistic for Secretary of State Race Win

Rachel Alexander

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona – Republican Mark Finchem remained optimistic in the hours following the polls closing on Tuesday as the early returns showed the Secretary of State hopeful underperforming against his Democratic Party rival, Adrian Fontes. 

Arizona’s Trump-endorsed slate of candidates appeared to be losing at first, with State Representative Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley) trailing former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes in the Secretary of State’s race 41.8 percent to 58.2 percent. By midnight, 69 percent of precincts were tabulated.

Read More

Kari Lake Gains Ground on Katie Hobbs with over 30 Percent of Votes Left to Count

Neil Jones

The Arizona race for governor is taking a red turn Wednesday morning after a blue night Tuesday. Republican Kari Lake now sits within one percentage point of her opponent Katie Hobbs, and Lake’s campaign is confident their candidate will continue to outperform her Democrat rival, Katie Hobbs.

“We are confident that every drop moving forward will be a net positive for [Kari Lake]. It’s a marathon not a sprint,” said her campaign.

Read More

Ahead in the Polls, Kari Lake Tests New Theme: Don’t Let America Become California

Just the News

Ahead in the polls and garnering national attention, Arizona GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake is teasing a new message that could catch on for conservatives in 2024: California is the evil empire for freedom-loving Americans.

“We’re not interested in those liberal, leftist California-style policies in Arizona,” Lake said on Friday during an interview on the “Just the News, No Noise” television show.

Read More

New Poll Shows Races Tightening in Arizona, Blake Masters Says ‘Mark Kelly’s Campaign Is Floundering’

Neil Jones

With the Arizona General Election only a week away, OH Predictive Insights (OHPI) released its final Arizona Public Opinion Pulse (AZPOP) poll showing nearly every race neck in neck. The race for Senate has become especially close, and Republican nominee Blake Masters said it is because Arizonans realize what’s at stake.

“Despite massive financial backing from the wealthy special interests who control him, Mark Kelly’s campaign is floundering because Arizonans know Mark Kelly is the one responsible for surging inflation, surging crime, and surging gas prices. They also know that Mark Kelly is the single Senator most responsible for our open border disaster. This election is a referendum on border security and Mark Kelly’s betrayal of every Arizona family,” Masters said in a statement emailed to the Arizona Sun Times. “A vote for Kelly is a vote for open borders. A vote for me is a vote for secure borders and safe communities. That’s what is at stake in this election.”

Read More

Twitter Suspends Mark Finchem’s Account Three Days After Elon Musk’s Takeover, Eight Days Before the Election – UPDATED

Rachel Alexander

Just three days after tech mogul Elon Musk acquired Twitter, promising to bring free speech to the platform, the social media giant suspended Arizona secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem. The election is eight days away, and the Trump-endorsed state representative is running on a platform of combating voter fraud – a contentious topic that raises hackles on the Right and Left.

Finchem received a notice from Twitter Monday afternoon telling him, “We’ve temporarily limited some of your account features.” It went on to say, “We have determined this account violated the Twitter Rules. Specifically for:” However, there was no reason specified.

Read More

Kari Lake Thanks Liz Cheney for Being Her ‘Biggest Fundraiser Yet’

Neil Jones

Following the release of a $500,000 TV ad Friday from Liz Cheney’s Political Action Committee (PAC) urging Arizona voters to stay away from Republican nominees Kari Lake and Mark Finchem, Lake said her campaign received a huge boost in donations. Lake thanked Cheney for contributing to the campaign.

“Thank you [Cheney] for your generous in-kind contribution to my campaign. Your recent television ad urging Arizonans not to vote for me is doing just the opposite,” Lake said in a letter to Cheney. “Our campaign donations are skyrocketing and our website nearly crashed from traffic as people rushed to learn more about my plan to put Arizona first and join our historic political movement.”

Read More

Liz Cheney Drops $500,000 on Ads Targeting Kari Lake and Mark Finchem

Rachel Alexander

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), who was defeated for reelection in the 2022 Republican primary after opposing and voting to impeach President Donald Trump, is buying ad time in Arizona opposing two popular Trump-endorsed candidates. Her PAC, The Great Task, purchased $500,000 in air time to run an ad critical of Trump-endorsed Kari Lake, who is running for governor, and Trump-endorsed State Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley), who is running for secretary of state.

During the ad, which features a clip from a speech Cheney gave at ASU sponsored by the McCain Institute earlier this month, Cheney stated, “I don’t know that I have ever voted for a Democrat. But if I lived in Arizona, I absolutely would.” She claimed that Lake and Finchem “will only honor the results of an election if they agree with it.”

Read More

Arizona Candidates on the Right Get Together for Massive ‘Big Tent’ Rally

Rachel Alexander

Patriots of Arizona put on a rally Monday night at Dream City Church in Phoenix featuring a long list of candidates running for office, from local school board candidates to Kari Lake for governor. Former President Donald Trump has endorsed several of them, and most of his picks are leading in the polls. Emceed by pundit Kevin Jackson, the theme of the evening was how Republicans are set to sweep Arizona on Nov. 8. 

Jackson opened the event telling the crowd of several hundred and 27 organizations, some which had booths outside the event, “I’m Kevin Jackson and my pronouns are FJB.” The president of Patriots of Arizona, Bonnie, thanked the church for hosting the event, noting that “Other churches have not opened their doors.

Read More

Arizona’s Down-Ticket Races Highly Competitive, New Poll Shows

Admin

Further down the ballot, Arizona voters should expect some highly-competitive statewide races, a new poll shows.

While the incumbent treasurer appears to be in a position to win her re-election bid, the races for secretary of state, attorney general, and superintendent of public instruction are tighter, according to OH Predictive Insights’ (OHPI) latest Arizona Public Opinion Pulse (AZPOP) poll. In the latter three races, no candidate leads by more than three points, making them statistically tied because of the poll’s 3.77% margin of error.

Read More

Kari Lake Campaign Calls Liz Cheney ‘Confused’: ‘Auditions for CNN Contributors Are Being Held in Washington, Not Arizona’

Neil Jones

The Campaign of Arizona’s gubernatorial Republican nominee, Kari Lake, blasted Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who spoke on the Arizona State University (ASU) Campus Wednesday, telling Arizonans to vote against candidates like Lake.

“Liz Cheney is confused. Auditions for CNN contributors are being held in Washington, not in Arizona. No one here cares what she has to say,” said Lake’s Communications Director, Ross Trumble, to the Arizona Sun Times.

Read More

Accusations Fly Between Finchem, Fontes During Arizona Secretary of State Debate Focused on Voter Fraud

Rachel Alexander

Trump-endorsed State Representative Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley) faced off against Democratic former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes in a debate Thursday evening hosted by Clean Elections on KAET PBS. Most of the lively exchange focused on the candidates’ stark differences regarding voter fraud, with Fontes more dismissive and Finchem stating election integrity is a priority. 

Finchem said in his opening statement that he is running due to what’s happened to the office under the current officeholder, Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is running for governor. He said he wants to “restore honor, integrity, and security” to the position. “It’s not up to the secretary of state to make the law, they enforce the law that’s already laid down.” In addition to other controversies, Hobbs has been involved in a high-profile legal dispute with Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich for making changes to the state’s Election Procedures Manual that Brnovich asserts are outside of her authority.

Read More

Trump-Endorsed Mark Finchem Leads Adrian Fontes by over Six Points in Arizona Secretary of State Race: Poll

Rachel Alexander

A new poll from The Trafalgar Group shows Trump-endorsed State Representative Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley), who is running for Arizona secretary of state, more than six points ahead of his opponent, Democratic former Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes. Conducted between September 14 and 17, the survey of 1,080 likely voters by the Republican-aligned pollster found that 47.5 percent chose Finchem and 41.1 percent chose Fontes.

Read More

Blake Masters Campaign Celebrates Momentum in ‘Dead Heat’ Race Following New Poll Results

Neil Jones

A new poll from the Trafalgar Group shows Trumped-endorsed Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters making momentum against his opponent, incumbent Mark Kelly (D-AZ).

“This race is a dead heat despite Mark Kelly spending $60 million to paint himself as some type of moderate, when he’s been nothing more than a rubber stamp for Joe Biden’s failed agenda. Blake Masters is gaining momentum every day as voters learn about Kelly’s extreme voting record and reject him,” said Blake Masters’s press contact Zachery Henry to the Arizona Sun Times.

Read More

Kari Lake and Mark Finchem Appeal Judge’s Decision to Dismiss Their Electronic Voting Machines Lawsuit

Rachel Alexander

Although the deadline for printing ballots for Arizona’s midterm election on Nov. 8 has passed, ending the time for litigation regarding items that must appear on the ballot, one lawsuit regarding the election continues to wind its way through the courts. After their lawsuit requesting the halting of electronic voting machines in the election was thrown out by an Obama-appointed trial court judge, U.S. District Judge John Tuchi, the attorneys for Trump-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Trump-endorsed State Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley), who is running for Arizona Secretary of State, filed a notice of appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Tuchi stated in his order dismissing the case that “speculative allegations that voting machines may be hackable are insufficient to establish an injury in fact,” it was too close to the election to file, and the lawsuit should have been filed in state court, not federal court. 

Read More

Kari Lake and Mark Finchem Denounce Maricopa County Supervisor’s Motion for Sanctions over Election Integrity Lawsuit

Rachel Alexander

Trump-endorsed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake filed a lawsuit along with Trump-endorsed State Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley), who is running for Arizona Secretary of State, in April to block the use of electronic voting machines to count ballots in the 2022 election. The Maricopa County Supervisors responded last week with a motion requesting sanctions against the pair and their attorneys, which include former Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz, asserting that the suit was “frivolous.” 

Finchem tweeted, “The threatened action by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, is nothing more than the attempted weaponization of the judicial process against the political process. If they can’t stand up to scrutiny for elections, that’s their problem — not our problem. Elections must be secure and trustworthy, Maricopa County has demonstrated neither is the case in the last election. “

Read More

Republicans Rumble in Final Forum for Arizona Sec State and Treasurer

Rachel Alexander

The grassroots organization America Pack put on its last Republican primary debate Friday night, featuring the candidates for Arizona Secretary of State followed by the candidates for Arizona State Treasurer. During the first debate, Secretary of State candidate and current State Senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R-Scottsdale) took an aggressive stance toward her opponents, and her fellow Republicans responded in kind. 

During the second debate, State Representative Jeff Weninger (R-Chandler) went after the sitting treasurer, Kimberly Yee, who responded back just as feistily.

Read More

Gosar, Biggs and Finchem Respond to Lawsuit from ‘Random Members of the Public’ Trying to Remove Them from Ballot for ‘Insurrection’

Rachel Alexander

An organization calling itself “Free Speech for People” filed lawsuits against three prominent Arizona Republican officials, asserting that they are unqualified to hold office due to their connections to the Jan. 6, 2021 protest at the U.S. Capitol. The lawsuits aim to stop Rep. Paul Gosar (R-04-Ariz.) and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-03-Ariz.) from running for reelection, and State Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley) from running for Arizona Secretary of State, claiming the three engaged in “insurrection” which is prohibited by the Fourteenth Amendment. 

Jack Wilenchik, the attorney for Finchem, told The Arizona Sun Times, “The lawsuit is long on publicity but short on law. No convictions or congressional authority for suit.” He told Capitol Media, “We don’t allow random members of the public to accuse politicians of a crime and remove them from office.” He explained how it would open the floodgates for anyone to try and remove any elected official they disagreed with, from Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton.

Read More

Grassroots ‘America Pack’ Recommends 36 Bills in the Arizona Legislature This Session

Rachel Alexander

America Pack, a grassroots movement “built to empower citizens to hold elected officials accountable, advocate for honest elections, support law enforcement, and fight for freedom and liberty,” has issued a list of its most important bills this session in the Arizona Legislature. The topics primarily address election integrity, education, and COVID-19. They must be scheduled to be heard in a committee by Feb. 18, or they will die.

Election Integrity – House Government and Elections Committee

HB 2023, sponsored by State Representative Mark Finchem (R-Mesa) with several co-sponsors, requires digital images of ballots to be posted publicly online after elections.

Read More

Arizona State Lawmaker Introduces Resolution to Decertify 2020 Election in Three Counties

Arizona Sun Times Staff

Arizona Republican State Rep. Mark Finchem introduced a bill Monday calling to decertify the 2020 election in three counties.

“In the case of Maricopa, Pima and Yuma Counties, the fact that there is evidence showing illegal acts occurred, whether by intent or omission does not matter, the margin of error exceeds the margin of victory,” said Finchem, who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump for Arizona Secretary of State.

Read More

Arizona Lawmakers Hold Hearing in Pima County Analyzing 2020 Voter Fraud Allegations

Rachel Alexander

While most of the scrutiny over voter fraud in Arizona has focused on Maricopa County, less attention has been paid to Pima County, probably because it is known for being a Democratic stronghold that wouldn’t go for former President Donald Trump. But with plenty of allegations of fraud there, including an anonymous account of how 35,000 fraudulent votes were added, lawmakers are expanding their focus on Tucson. Nine Arizona legislators held a hearing there on Dec. 13, where it came out that the precincts Trump did poorly in had high Republican turnout — but the same Democrat turnout all over. 

Sen. Kelly Townsend (R-Mesa) explained why the Pima County election integrity hearing was necessary. “People ask me, ‘Why are you doing Pima when you’re not done with Maricopa, there’s a lot of work to do.’ Well, we’re all playing whack a mole with all the crazy things they’re throwing at us.” She went on, “The clock is ticking while we’re waiting for the 2022 election.” She explained how the Arizona Legislature must be finished by the end of April for the 90 days to go by until any law can be enacted, in order to be in place for the 2022 primary. “Hopefully we can get a special session instead,” referring to her calls for Gov. Doug Ducey to call one now. 

Read More

Arizona Attorney General Brnovich Prosecuting Felon Who Voted From Jail

Rachel Alexander

A state grand jury has indicted a 46-year-old felon for illegally voting while in jail. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced that Manuel Aguirre of Sahuarita was indicted on one count of false registration and one count of illegal voting, both felonies. He voted during the 2020 election from the Pima County Jail. 

Aguirre falsely stated on his voter registration form that he had no felonies or that his rights had been restored. He has five felony convictions, including vehicular theft, criminal trespassing and weapons misconduct. 

Read More

Citing Precincts with Ballot Return Rate Greater Than 100 Percent, Donald Trump Calls to Decertify Pima County’s 2020 Election or Hold a New One

Rachel Alexander

Former President Donald Trump issued a statement on October 15 denouncing the results of an investigation of mail-in ballots in Pima County’s 2020 election, calling for either the results for president to be decertified with Trump declared the winner or hold a new election. He said the election was “Rigged and Stolen,” citing “staggering anomalies and fictitious votes” that “stuffed the ballot box” with more ballots than were sent out in some precincts. Arizona Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley), who is running for Arizona Secretary of State, echoed Trump’s claims, saying there are “34,000 or 35,000 fictitious voters” in Pima County.

Trump said the analysis was done from publicly available election data, and showed that mail-in ballots returned in Pima County during the election initially showed him up 3 points over other Republicans, with Joe Biden underperforming other Democrats by 3 points. Then the mail-in ballots started returning at an abnormally high rate, over 87%, and Trump suddenly started performing worse and Biden better. However, “they overplayed their hand, and got caught. Two precincts in Pima had over 100 percent turnout for mail-in ballots — which is impossible — and 40 precincts had over 97% returned.”

Read More

Arizona State Rep. Turns State Ballot Integrity Project into National Opportunity

Arizona Sun Times Staff

Mark Finchem, the State Representative from Arizona who has also received the endorsement of former President Donald Trump in a bid to become that State’s Secretary of State in 2022, has effectively taken his Arizona Ballot Integrity Project (BIP) national as of this past Wednesday when he and approximately 30 others from around the country gathered at the suburban Dallas offices of international authentication leader, Authentix, to create a process for introducing a highly counterfeit-resistant paper ballot. 

Read More

Democratic Legislator Responds to Defamation Lawsuit Filed by Gosar, Finchem and Kern over January 6 Remarks

Rachel Alexander

Rep. Charlene Fernandez (D-Yuma) responded to a defamation lawsuit filed against her by three Arizona Republican leaders by asking the court to dismiss it. U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ-04), Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley) and former Rep. Anthony Kern (R-Phoenix) filed the lawsuit against her due to a letter she sent on February 12 to the FBI and Department of Justice along with the rest of the Democrats in the Arizona Legislature asking the agencies to investigate the men about their role on January 6 at the U.S. Capitol protest. The three were at the Capitol that day but did not participate in the unauthorized entry of the building or aggressive behavior. 

Finchem told National File that “it’s been horrible” dealing with the accusations. “They’ve destroyed my character in the public eye. They’ve destroyed my reputation, and all of it is a big lie.”

Read More

Five Voting-Related Ballot Proposals Seek to Make Arizona 2022 Ballot

Rachel Alexander

Five ballot proposals addressing voting may be on this fall’s ballot if their sponsors collect enough signatures. Three of them, known as referendums, seek to stop legislation from becoming law, requiring 118,823 signatures each. The other ballot initiatives need 237,645 signatures each. Even if all the signatures are collected, a successful legal challenge could keep them off the ballot.

Read More