In the wake of the Arizona Senate’s release of the 2020 General Election in Maricopa County audit findings, the Arizona Attorney General’s Election Integrity Unit has begun an investigation.
The Election Integrity Unit (EIU) sent a letter to the Arizona Senate requesting supporting documents from the audit report released last week. It has also advised Maricopa County to preserve all documents and data related to the 2020 election.
Senate President Karen Fann sent a letter to Attorney General Mark Brnovich last Friday in which she urged him to begin an investigation, arguing that ‘Arizona voters deserve an unimpeachable electoral process.’
I imagine the County won’t have as much luck obstructing the Attorney General. pic.twitter.com/CqpQdeLDaf
— Warren Petersen (@votewarren) September 28, 2021
Over the weekend, anti-Trump Democrat Bill Kristol and his “Republican Accountability Project” produced a new ad that featured Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates, blasting attempts by Republicans to expose the irregularities of the 2020 election as “reckless.”
“I hope the remnants of your conservatism will not prevent you from helping to demolish the Republican Party so that it can be replaced by a healthy political party…Until that happens…until the existential crisis passes, I am voting only for Democrats.”https://t.co/8iMJ5wGvUk
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) September 26, 2021
However, critics say that the electoral process employed by Maricopa County was not only reckless, but some actions could be criminal in nature.
Related Article: Expert Raises Questions About Ballots Counted By Maricopa County Without Voter Signatures
An expert in engineering systems and pattern recognition software who holds a PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported during last Friday’s Senate Audit presentation that nearly 4,500 ballots may have been counted in Maricopa County’s 2020 General Election even though the voters’ signatures were missing as required by law.
Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai of EchoMail Inc. was contracted by Senate President Karen Fann to review images of the more than 1.9 million “affidavit” return envelopes which held the early ballots mailed in or dropped off at Maricopa County voting centers between Oct. 7 and Nov. 3.
Each return envelope contains a signature box, which under Arizona law must be signed by the voter and matched by the Recorder’s Office to the voter’s registration file. There is also a signature “area” on the Braille ballots, large-print ballots, and three styles of online voting via the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) utilized in Maricopa County.
Letters from AZ AG Election Integrity Unit:
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers, District 1
jack.sellers@maricopa.gov
Supervisor Steve Chucri, District 2
steve.chucri@maricopa.gov
Supervisor Bill Gates, District 3
bill.gates@maricopa.gov
Maricopa County Recorder’s Office Recorder Stephen Richer
sricher@risc.maricopa.gov
Dear Sirs:
As you are aware, the Arizona Senate released the findings of the forensic audit of the 2020 General Election on Friday, September 24, 2021. The Elections Integrity Unit (“Unit”) of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (“Office”) has begun its review of the report and materials provided by the Arizona Senate.
Based on the information contained within the report, the Unit expects the need to obtain documents, files, and related information during the course of review that is potentially relevant to the 2020 General Election and is currently under the direct or indirect custody and care of the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, Maricopa County Elections Department, and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors ( combined referred to as “Maricopa County”).
In light of our review, as well as the expectation the review may lead to further investigation or litigation, this letter is to provide notice to Maricopa County that a litigation hold should be in effect regarding all potentially relevant materials related to the 2020 General Election, as well as potentially relevant materials related to the 2020 Primary Election and 2020 Presidential Preference Election ( combined referred to as “2020 Statewide Elections”). All Maricopa County employees, contractors, subcontractors, vendors, and assigns who were directly or indirectly involved in any aspect of managing the 2020 Statewide Elections should be made aware of this litigation hold and Maricopa County should take all actions necessary to ensure compliance.
Under this notice, Maricopa County has a duty to preserve the following potentially relevant information as it relates to the 2020 Statewide Elections:
- Hard copies of documents, tangible items, and electronically stored information;
- Electronic communications, including emails or instant messaging used by Maricopa County as well as county-owned or personal mobile devices and any other device that would contain potentially relevant data;
- Electronic data stored on computer systems, election systems, removable electronic media (including floppy discs, CDs, DVDs, and flash memory media, including USB drives and memory cards), word processing documents, spreadsheets, databases, calendars, digital photographs or other digital images, internet usage files (including router information and splunk logs), telephone logs, and network access information;
- Election equipment used to administer the 2020 Statewide Election, including systems used to verify ballot affidavit signatures, tabulators, computer equipment, and all election management equipment;
- Any and all physical records including, but not limited to, all ballots (whether counted or not), returned early ballot envelopes (including undeliverable, unopened/rejected, opened), chain of custody documentation for all election-related materials, tracking logs (including electronic adjudication logs, duplicated ballot logs, and any election-related logs), internal documents related to election administration (including Maricopa County election procedures effective during the 2020 election), internal memos, voter registration forms (including documents to update or change voter registration records), and tally sheets;
- All electronic files and footage captured by video monitoring equipment used on behalf of Maricopa County that contains still images, moving images and/ or any audio recordings of the inside and outside of the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (“MCTEC”) the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, and any satellite offices, facilities, or locations used in conjunction with the 2020 Statewide Elections; and
- Building access records maintained by Maricopa County for all offices related to 2020 Statewide Election.
This litigation hold extends to all records that exist today or that you create in the future, and it applies to any materials maintained by Maricopa County or maintained at the home of employees or at any other location. Maricopa County should construe this hold liberally and should retain all relevant data generated or retained from the date Maricopa County began planning the 2020 Statewide Elections to the present whether or not such information has been delineated in this letter.
Maricopa County should take every reasonable step to preserve this information until further notice. Compliance with your preservation obligations includes forwarding a copy of this letter to all individuals and organization who may have potentially relevant information related to the 2020 Statewide Elections.
______________
The Honorable Karen Fann President
Arizona State Senate
1700 W. Washington Phoenix, AZ 85007-2844
kfann@azleg.gov
Dear President Fann:
The Elections Integrity Unit (“Unit”) of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (“AGO”) is in receipt of your letter dated September 24, 2021 and related audit reports pertaining to the Senate’s forensic audit the 2020 General Election.
In order for the Unit to conduct a thorough review of the information contained in those reports, we respectfully request the following:
1. Unredacted copies of all reports;
2. Appendices referenced in Cyber Ninjas Report, Vol. III;
3. Evidence supporting findings contained in Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai’s report entitled “Pattern Recognition Classification of Early Voting Ballot Return Envelope Images for Signature Presence Detection by Echomail”;
4. Evidence supporting findings contained in Ben Cotton’s presentation “Digital Findings”; and
5. An opportunity to meet individually with each of the contractors/subcontractors that prepared the report or presented findings to the Senate.
Please note that the Unit sent a letter to Maricopa County directing them to preserve all potentially relevant materials related to the 2020 General Election, 2020 Presidential Preference Election and the 2020 Primary Election. The Unit will send a follow up letter asking Maricopa County to respond to the reports’ findings, as well as inviting them to provide rebuttal evidence.