Arizona’s attorney general appeared on a national business news program Wednesday and tossed a hand grenade at President Trump’s election challenge by proclaiming Joe Biden has enough votes to win Arizona despite a pending legal challenge, as “there are no facts that would lead anyone to believe that the election results will change.”
Attorney General Mark Brnovich told Neil Cavuto of Fox Business about 50,000 votes remained uncounted across Arizona, of which Trump would need to receive at least 65 percent to overcome Biden’s 12,600 votes advantage. And although it is “mathematically possible” for the votes to fall in line for Trump, Brnovich said “that’s not likely to happen, very, very highly unlikely to happen.”
Brnovich, who is a Republican, also revealed his office received more than 1,000 complaints about ink bleed-throughs on ballots due to the Sharpie pens that Maricopa County elections officials had voters use. However, his office found “no evidence” of voter fraud in connection with Maricopa County’s ballot tabulation machines, although he did not say everything worked smoothly.
“We looked into that and we were able to determine that did not affect anyone’s vote,” Brnovich to Cavuto, although he provided no specifics about his office’s review.
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The attorney general also seemed to chide the Republican National Committee and the Arizona Republican Party which joined Trump’s campaign last week in filing a legal challenge about “potentially thousands of votes” being uncounted or miscounted in Maricopa County due to ink from Sharpie pens bleeding through the ballots.
“My point is this…we need to deal in facts and evidence,” Brnovich said. “If there is a problem or you think there is a potential problem, the answer is you don’t wait until (the election) is done to file a lawsuit.”
Brnovich also stated Maricopa County conducted a random two percent hand count which “came back 100 percent, that there wasn’t any statistical anomalies or errors.” His office observed that hand count, which is essentially an audit required by state law.
Last week, Brnovich’s chief of staff recommended that Maricopa County increase the sample population of the hand count from two percent to five percent, citing “widespread concern raised about the ballot marking procedures” at Election Day voting centers. That advice appeared to have gone unheeded.
During the interview, Brnovich also repeated the claims of Maricopa County officials who have stated that less than 200 ballots were flagged for having an apparent overvote in the presidential race. Documentation supporting that statement is expected to be presented Thursday during an evidentiary hearing granted at the request of Trump’s campaign.
In addition, attorneys for Trump and the Republican groups are expected to show why they believe the number is much greater.
Brnovich, who used to be a criminal prosecutor, stated he understood his comments may not be popular among some Republicans, but he was not going to encourage election conspiracies.
“There was a time, not that long ago, we as Republicans talked about we need to make sure the Rule of Law means something, we don’t want anarchy we want the Rule of Law,” he said. “We know what the rules are and those rules stay the same. And they apply to everyone, regardless of how wealthy you are, poor you are, where you come from, what neighborhood you live in.”
Another observation Brnovich made was “the reality” that many Republicans split their ticket by voting down-ballot for all races except President and U.S. Senator.
“Just because that happened it doesn’t mean it’s fraud,” he said. “I think the people didn’t vote ‘for Biden,’ they just didn’t like some people’s styles.”