After getting slammed by his fellow Republicans, Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Chucri announced on December 4, his intention to suggest the approval of a third-party audit of the Dominion tabulation machines. Chucri said the audit “will examine and clarify for the public- software and hardware questions and claims of the ability of a machine to tamper with votes and outcomes.”
Chucri’s move came the day before Forbes Magazine broke the news that law enforcement officials served a search warrant on November 5 at the Fountain Hills home of Elliot Kerwin, who is accused of voter data theft from the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office website.
According to the Forbes article dated December 5, computers, hard drives, and other storage devices were seized on November 5, as part of the investigation of a conspiracy to commit computer intrusion from Oct. 21 through early November.
“The warrant,” according to Forbes, “reveals investigators have been looking into a computer intrusion at an unnamed “victim office,” which occurred from October 21 to November 4. At the Kerwin residence, they were looking for any evidence within the seized computers that showed they’d been used to access the IT network at the office, as well as “protected voters’ information” and any indication that it had been disseminated to other people.”
“Analysis by the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office IT Security indicates an unauthorized individual gathered publicly accessible voter information from our website,” a spokesperson told Forbes.
The Recorder’s Office didn’t specify what voter information and declined to comment any further on the nature of the attack, according to the Forbes report.
“Additional security controls were put in place to mitigate against this activity occurring in the future. The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office has reported this to proper authorities and law enforcement personnel, and there is an ongoing investigation by the FBI at this time. The FBI informed our office today they served a warrant,” the spokesperson told Forbes.
President Trump fired Chris Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, after is statement that said there “is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
“The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud,” Trump said in a tweet.
While there is no claim that Kerwin tampered with the election, a case in federal court addresses concerns with the use of the Dominion system in Maricopa County.
In that case, Bowyer et al v. Ducey et al, which includes the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors as defendants along with Governor Doug Ducey, and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the plaintiff’s lawyers, Sidney Powell, and Alex Kolodin, allege irregularities. In their Reply To Responses In Opposition To Motion For Declaratory, Emergency, And Permanent Injunctive Relief, Powell and Kolodin note the support they have received from other public officials interested in the irregularities and the Dominion machines:
“Congressman Gosar and Congressman Biggs, have taken the unusual step of putting out statements urging this Court to give Plaintiffs’ claims serious consideration and laying out their reasons for making that request. Congressman Gosar, in his formal letter writes, in part:
Currently pending before the Court is Bowyer v. Ducey. We have seen various reports of irregularities, variances, statistical improbabilities, and unorthodox measures occurring in the general election for 2020. To date, in response to the numerous reports, we have received platitudes and condescension “assuring” us, and Arizona voters, that there was no fraud, or now they say that there was not enough fraud to matter. Indeed, those making the assurances, including the Secretary of State, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, and others, have proffered no evidence that the election tabulation was not manipulated.
There has been no thorough investigation, no forensic audit, no signature verification, and really no substantive effort to rebut the many deficiencies reported on. There are the objective indicia of manipulation that include: down ballot races all going in favor of the Republicans (with the notable and expected loss of McSally). In counties that did not use Dominion software, the President easily won. There is no voter registration imbalance that would make Maricopa County the outlier.
. . .
If every vote counts, and if the right to free and fair elections is as important as we always say, then any such vote manipulation must be investigated thoroughly and remedied.
. . .
In a recent legislative hearing, evidence was presented of voter anomalies that supposedly occurred notwithstanding the mathematical improbability of such an occurrence.
If U.S. Attorney General Barr does not conduct a transparent investigation into the allegations of election fraud in the 2020 election, millions of Americans may always have doubts about the legitimacy of the next president.
We need answers and clarity – now. pic.twitter.com/hDAPrlYtYY
— Rep Andy Biggs (@RepAndyBiggsAZ) December 5, 2020