“I have it all on film,” John Brakey, founder of Audit AZ, told James T. Harris referring to conversations he and others had this morning with Pima County Elections Director Brad Nelson. Brakey and others had gathered at the Department for the second logic and accuracy test in two days.
The second test was conducted after Brakey discovered that a Pima County employee broke the seal that had been placed on the ballot counting machines after the first logic and accuracy test conducted on Tuesday. By law, witnesses must be present when the logic and accuracy test is conducted. The test must be conducted prior to counting the votes in elections.
According to Brakey, the first test took about 15 minutes. “These machines are rated at 400 ballots per minute and overall 9000 ballots per hour per machine this from ES&S specks,” Brakey told the ADI.
Listen to ADI reporter David Ahumada and John Brakey on the James T. Harris show here
Brakey told Harris that at 3:03 p.m. on Tuesday, he saw an Election Department staffer “walk over and break the seal. He was the same guy who put the seal on. And this seal is a very special seal.” Brakey told Harris that he was watching the live stream from the Elections Department on Tuesday afternoon, and could see the “guy break into the machine, while Brad Nelson walked into the room and was doing spins in his chair as the guy was tampering with seal. Nelson admitted to the whole affair,” said Brakey.
Pima County staff explained to the ADI this morning that it was a “matter of opinion” as to whether the staff acted unprofessionally. Nelson nonsensically answered nearly every question with the same refrain: “It is a matter of opinion.”
In Brakey’s opinion, the actions by the staff are highly questionable. According to Brakey, the decision of the Elections Department to keep all tabulators plugged into the ether net prior to Election Day is also inappropriate. That not all, they intend to do to that is questionable.
“I’m shocked that they are going to upload the results from the 4 standalone ES&S DS850 units to the central computer daily,” Brakey told the ADI in an email on Tuesday. “Again this should not happen until election night. That’s how Maricopa County does it. In fact, these machines are so fast that there is no need to be counting ballot till next Tuesday election day at 7:00 a.m.”
A handful of residents are concerned because the current election includes seven bond issues that Huckleberry and a majority of Pima County supervisors support. They say that the elections are being run and handled by the County under the direct supervision of Huckleberry, which adds to the skepticism they have about the seal and the possibility of tampering with election results. Still others urge residents to have faith in the process. They say the bond will likely pass by a wide margin and there is no reason for the County to cheat.