Tag: voting machine tabulators

Arizona Republican Party Joins Two Other State GOPs Filing an Amicus Curiae Brief in Kari Lake’s and Mark Finchem’s Voting Machine Tabulator Lawsuit

Rachel Alexander
Attorney William Olson

The Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) submitted a joint Amicus Curiae brief on Thursday with the Georgia Republican Party and the Republican State Committee of Delaware supporting Kari Lake’s and Mark Finchem’s Petition for Certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court. The pair are appealing the lower courts’ decisions against their lawsuit challenging the use of electronic voting machine tabulators in elections. Under the new leadership of AZGOP Chair Gina Swoboda, who has a lengthy history in election integrity work including heading the Voter Reference Foundation, the AZGOP is heavily focused on election integrity. 

Authored by attorney William J. Olson, the brief argues that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals erred by dismissing the case claiming Lake and Finchem lacked standing. The court affirmed the trial court’s granting of the defendants’ motion to dismiss, asserting that the pair lacked standing because “speculative allegations that voting machines may be hackable are insufficient to establish an injury in fact under Article III.” The complaint emphasized that the lower courts “conflated standing with merits, twisting the standing rules to require much more — that the complaint prove facts sufficient to grant relief.” 

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Election Integrity Investigator Releases New Information About Likely Manipulation of Maricopa County’s Voting Machine Tabulators in the 2020 and 2022 Elections

Rachel Alexander

Ben Cotton, an IT expert proficient in forensics and digital systems analysis, issued a declaration last month about flaws with Maricopa County’s voting machine tabulators. It was included in Kari Lake’s and Mark Finchem’s latest pleadings in their complaint challenging the use of voting machine tabulators in elections. One of those findings was that unauthorized executable programs were installed on the machines at least three times during the 2020 election, which could be used to alter election results without detection.

Cotton, whose firm CyFIR was hired by the Arizona Senate in 2021 to audit the 2020 election, summarized his findings, “It is clear, based on my findings, that unauthorized programs, databases, configuration settings and actions were present on the voting systems in Maricopa County for the elections in both 2020 and 2022.”

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Kari Lake, Mark Finchem Appeal Their Case Seeking to Ban Electronic Voting Machine Tabulators to the U.S. Supreme Court, Add New Evidence Including ‘False Statements’ by Defendants

Rachel Alexander
Kari Lake and Mark Finchem

Kari Lake and Mark Finchem filed a Petition for Certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, appealing the dismissal of their lawsuit against Arizona officials to stop the use of electronic voting machine tabulators. The 210-page petition added new allegations stating that the defendants lied to the court and that new evidence had surfaced exposing the vulnerabilities of the machines to bad actors.

“New evidence from other litigation and public-record requests shows defendants made false statements to the district court regarding the safeguards allegedly followed to ensure the accuracy of the vote, on which the district court relied,” the petition asserted. 

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We the People AZ Alliance Introduces AVII Ballot Hand Count Method to Senate Elections Committee, Already Adopted by Maricopa County Republicans

Rachel Alexander
Shelby Busch

The Senate Elections Committee heard a presentation from We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA) co-founder Shelby Busch on Monday regarding its plan for restoring trust in elections by including hand counts of ballots.

Both the Arizona Republican Party, the Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC), and Arkansas Republicans have already implemented the AVII method, which is known as the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative, in its party elections. Republicans in Arkansas want to make the AVII method law by putting the question to voters as a constitutional amendment.

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Mohave County Supervisor Ron Gould Sues AG Kris Mayes over Her Threats to Prosecute Him for Voting to Hand Count Ballots

Rachel Alexander
Mayes Gould

Mohave County Supervisor Ron Gould filed a lawsuit against Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes over her threat to prosecute him if he voted in favor of conducting a hand count of the 2024 election. He asked the court in the complaint, which was filed on January 19, to rule “[t]hat Plaintiff should not be subjected to threats and intimidation by the Attorney General for voting to have hand counting be the primary initial method of vote tabulation.”

Represented by Wilenchik & Bartness, Gould described the threat, “This case is about an elected official potentially losing his liberty and being jailed as a criminal, if Defendant Mayes is correct, for voting according to his conscience, and pursuant to the will of his constituents, based on election statutes that appear not to bar his intended support for vote counting based on hand counting and not the use of electronic voting machines.”

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State Senate Election Committee Chair Wendy Rogers Demands Election Logs from 2022 Election in Pinal County

Rachel Alexander

Concerned about allegations of wrongdoing and voter disenfranchisement in Pinal County’s 2022 election, State Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff), chair of the Senate Election Committee, sent the county a public records request demanding printout logs from the election. She asked for the EL52S, EL30A, and EL45A reports/logs. 

“Given the importance of free, fair, and transparent elections and the public’s skepticism regarding the conduct of recent elections, I am seeking production of these documents on an expedited basis.” She gave the county a deadline of 10 days to produce the documents, warning, “Any deletion of said public documents can give rise to a negative inference in a court of law.”

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Mohave County Supervisors Vote 3-2 Against Conducting Hand Count in 2024 Election After Arizona AG Threatens Them with Prosecution

Rachel Alexander

In a close 3-2 vote, the Mohave County Supervisors vetoed a move to conduct a hand count during the 2024 election on Monday. State Senator Sonny Borrelli (R-Lake Havasu) told The Arizona Sun Times prior to the vote that there were enough votes to approve it, but after the supervisors received a threat to prosecute them from Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes at the last minute, one of the supervisors, Chair Travis Lingenfelter, switched his vote.

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Maricopa County Disputes Video Footage Revealing That Voting Tabulators Were Not Properly Tested

Rachel Alexander

A video that has gone viral allegedly showing Maricopa County Elections failing to properly test voting tabulators prior to 2022’s election has prompted a defensive response from the county. The state Election Procedures Manual (EPM) requires that statutorily mandated Logic & Accuracy tests be completed after any modifications are made, such as adding new reprogrammed memory cards, which the video claims was not done. Violating the EPM is a class 2 misdemeanor.

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Calls Emerge for Maricopa County Officials to Resign or Be Recalled After Election Problems

Rachel Alexander

Activists are calling for resignations and recalls as Arizonans – along with the nation – await Maricopa County election officials’ announcements of the definitive results from Tuesday’s 2022 general election.

The state’s most populous county said that 30 percent of voting machine tabulation problems, causing lines of up to two hours in places. Maricopa County Member-at-Large Brian Ference says wants Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Bill Gates, chair of the Maricopa County Supervisors, to resign. Robert Canterbury, who unsuccessfully ran against Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman in 2020, is considering starting a recall against Gates, prompting State Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward to respond, “Let me know how I can help.”

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