Ken Bennett is the man who for months has provided assurances to the public that the Senate’s audit of how Maricopa County handled the 2020 General Election is being done professionally and transparently.
So when the former Arizona Secretary of State and former Speaker of the House was locked out of the audit location last week by Senate auditor Cyber Ninjas, a lot of people grew concerned, including some in the Senate where the audit was kicked off in January.
On Monday, Bennett announced to KYFI’s James T. Harris that he has advised Senate President Karen Fann he is prepared to resign as the Senate’s audit liaison. He is holding out hope he can remain to ensure better elections in 2022 and 2024, but that will require changes to how Cyber Ninjas does things, Bennett says he told Fann.
“We’ve had some very serious conversations,” Bennett told Harris of his talks with Fann. “I cannot be a part of a process that I am kept out of critical aspects along the way that make the audit legitimate and have integrity when we produce the final report.”
His lockout from the audit location last Friday was just “the tip of the iceberg,” Bennett said, adding that there has been “too many” things happening without his involvement.
Cyber Ninjas was contracted by the Senate to conduct a four-part audit of the election process. It involves the county’s leased Dominion Voting Systems equipment, a ballot paper evaluation, a hand count, and if necessary, a canvassing to confirm voter registration data.
Bennett also used the interview with Harris to explain his concern with how to conduct a possible third count of the more than 2 million Maricopa County ballots, due to the fact it appears the county’s official tally differs from the Cyber Ninjas’ tally.
Bennett believes it is critical for another count to be independently conducted of the ballots -not the votes- so there can be no allegations of “forced balancing” of the third count to match Cyber Ninjas’ numbers. He also worries that questions about how the Senate’s audit has been conducted will overshadow the questions raised about how Maricopa County conducted the election.
According to Bennett, the audit to date shows Maricopa County appears to have violated Arizona’s election laws in its handling of thousands of ballots which required duplication before being tabulated.
Such ballots involve those damaged in some way so that a tabulation machine cannot read the ballot. Duplication is also used for thousands of ballots submitted via email by military members and their families who vote under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA).
Arizona’s election procedures mandate that election officials affix a unique serial number to each duplicated ballot, and that the same number be affixed to the original ballot or UOCAVA email. This provides an audit trail to ensure the votes shown on the duplication ballot sent for tabulation actually match to the votes cast by the voter.
Bennett says there is ample evidence the serial number process was not consistently followed by Maricopa County, but he is still waiting for Cyber Ninjas to provide him that information.
Other questions about how Maricopa County conducted the election are not part of the Cyber Ninjas’ contract, including the process used by county employees to verify voter signatures on more than 1.9 million early ballot affidavits. Bennett told Harris he believes a review of the verification process is necessary, but it “needs to be done outside the domain” of the Cyber Ninjas.
Bennett also said his willingness to resign has nothing to do with his relationship with Fann or how she has handled the audit.
“She has shown rare courage and integrity and consistency from the very beginning when they started talking about doing this audit,” Bennett said, adding that Fann has consistently said the audit is not about overturning the results of the 2020 general election.
“Election integrity is not whether Donald Trump won a race or not, election integrity is about did we do the election right,” Bennett said. “And if we cannot assure the people of this state that they can have 100 percent trust in their elections, that virus will destroy our country a thousand times faster than COVID-19.”
In an emailed statement, Bennett described the Senate’s audit as “vital to our democracy and faith in it” and said he has been “very impressed by the thoughtful approach” taken by Fann and Sen. Warren Petersen, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
He said the Senate only undertook the audit to “restore the public’s trust in our elections and identify best practices and where our current practices could be improved.” The problem, Bennett added, is that key audit players “have shared misinformation with the public and have blocked efforts to be transparent with the public” in a manner that makes it hard for the public to have faith in the audit.
“Up until recently, the audit was something we could all be proud of and I hope we can continue to be,” he said. “It is essential that the level of transparency established at the start of the audit continue, no matter how inconvenient it may be. That is not the case now despite the wishes of the Senate.”
Bennett also pushed back on claims that the Senate’s undertaking is “Trump’s Audit.”
“This has been the Senate’s audit on behalf of the people of Arizona,” he said.