Long-Awaited Report From Arizona Attorney General-

Regular Member Posts : 7317 Join date : 2014-07-29

1-31-2022

AZ Republicans Introduce Bill Allowing Legislature
to “Reject” Election Results.

Arizona Republicans opened the legislative session this month with a slew of new voting bills, including legislation that would allow the GOP-led state legislature to “reject” election results.

Arizona Republicans, who already approved numerous new voting restrictions last year, are turning many of the GOP’s conspiracy theories about Donald Trump’s election loss into legislation even after their “forensic audit” of results in Maricopa County failed to turn up any evidence of fraud.

Perhaps the most far-reaching bill was introduced by Republican state Rep. John Fillmore, whose legislation could open the door for the Republican-led legislature to overturn election results for no reason at all.

The bill already has 15 Republican co-sponsors, including state Rep. Mark Finchem, the Trump-endorsed secretary of state candidate seeking to
take over the state’s elections.

Fillmore’s 35-page House Bill 2596 includes a section that would require the legislature to hold a special session to “review the ballot tabulating process” and then decide whether to “accept or reject the election results.”

The legislature does not have to have a specific reason to reject the results. If the legislature rejects the election results, “any qualified elector” can go to court to “request that a new election be held.”

“This bill is probably one of the biggest threats that we have seen here to our democracy,” Arizona House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding, a Democrat, said in an interview with Salon.

“Nearly half the [Republican] caucus believes that
the legislature should be the final decider, which goes against everything that we stand for when we talk about election integrity, democracy and what it means to truly be a republic.”

Fillmore’s bill would also eliminate no-excuse early voting, which is used by more than 80% of Arizona voters, and would require that all ballots be hand-counted within 24 hours of polls closing, which election administration experts say would require thousands, if not tens of thousands, of additional election workers in a state with more than 3 million voters.

Fillmore said on Wednesday that he wants elections to run the way they did in the 1950s.

“I think about the 1950s, where you had poll taxes, where you had literacy tests, where Jim Crow was the law of the land,” said Bolding, who is Black.

“For a large portion of our country, when they hear things like, ‘Let’s go back to 1958,’ they think about when their livelihood and their life could have been threatened just for simply having the ability to participate in democracy.”

Election administration has also made great strides since the 1950s and Arizona voters have increasingly moved away from traditional Election Day voting since the 1990s, said Tammy Patrick, a senior advisor to the elections program at the Washington, D.C., nonprofit Democracy Fund.

“For Arizona to introduce legislation to go back 70 years in the way in which we provide services to our voters is I think irresponsible,” she said in an interview.

Patrick said many lawmakers pushing voting bills are trying to “game the system by introducing legislation that they feel will benefit themselves and their party, when in reality it’s going to affect all voters across the spectrum.”

Fillmore’s bill would create a logistical nightmare.
The number of polling places in Arizona has been drastically reduced, from more than 11,000 down to fewer than 800 over the last two decades, as voters have increasingly moved away from Election Day voting.

So to adjust to this proposed law, that the state would have to fund a massive expansion of polling locations and poll workers, Patrick said. Arizona ballots also typically include between 40 to 60 different items to vote on, including local elections and propositions.

“The only way for them to complete a hand count of the full ballot within 24 hours, on millions of ballots in Arizona would be to hire literally thousands of people — in fact, it might be as many as tens of thousands,” she said.

The most concerning part of Fillmore’s legislation is
its attempt to allow the legislature to overturn the will of the voters, a growing trend in legislatures across the country, Patrick said.
The bill’s language does not include any criteria or necessary requirements to reject election results.

“What is the situation that would allow the legislature to step in and subvert the will of the people in a legitimate election outcome?” Patrick asked.
“There’s that lack of specificity and there’s ambiguity around when the legislature can do this.”

States already have laws and protocols if anything is amiss with elections. Any candidate, political action committee or individual voter who has evidence of wrongdoing has legal recourse to challenge elections.

“But you have to have evidence.
It can’t be merely conjecture,” Patrick said.
“There were more than 400 court cases around the 2020 election and all but one of the federal court cases was thrown out. … In all other cases, they were thrown out for lack of evidence.

It’s problematic because legislatures are introducing these kinds of bills as though there should be an additional channel outside the courts, and that it should go back to the legislature to decide whether
or not they agree with their population.”

Fillmore’s bill is one of dozens introduced by Republicans in Arizona, with many seemingly inspired directly by right-wing conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

“One of the most troubling aspects is that we see carryover from the conspiracy-theory language regarding the Maricopa County audit, in which there’s this view that hand-counting ballots is the only way to ensure that you have a free and fair election,” Bolding said.
“We know that not to be the truth. I think that’s this long line of conspiracy theories that we’ll continue to see in 2022 all the way through the next election cycle as well.”

Other bills would increase voter ID requirements to include fingerprints or special security codes;
impose a ban on same-day voter registration and automatic voter registration, both of which are already illegal in the state; expand the election recount threshold from 0.1% to 0.5%; and enact bans on drive-through voting and drop boxes.

A bill by state Sen. Wendy Rogers, one of the most ardent election conspiracy theorists in the state, would create a Bureau of Elections that answers
to the governor and is empowered to investigate allegations of election fraud, a proposal similar to those floated by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Georgia gubernatorial candidate David Perdue.

Voter fraud is exceptionally rare, despite numerous anecdotal reports of Trump supporters illegally voting, and there are numerous laws on the books criminalizing it.

Since the Supreme Court gutted that provision of
the law, “it gives everyone carte blanche ability to implement any kind of voting legislation, irrespective of whether or not it’s retrogressive or hurtful to all voters or even to specific voting populations.”

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Non-Partisan Facts: https://usafacts.org

Long-Awaited Report From Arizona Attorney General- 1Qk4U7p

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Too long, didn't read. I'm on my lunch break.

Regular Member Posts : 7317 Join date : 2014-07-29

2-5-2022

It isn't often a political party actually videotapes
itself committing treachery. Watch.

They filmed themselves fraudulently declaring themselves
“duly elected.”
They signed fake Electoral College certificates.
The illegitimate electors tried to falsify documents saying
Donald Trump won the majority of votes

The 11 Republicans gathered around an ordinary conference table to blithely falsify the results of their fellow Arizonans’ votes and summarily disenfranchise 1,672,143 of their fellow citizens, who had voted for the election’s lawful winner.

The Wannsee-like informality of the proceedings was underscored by the presence of water bottles and coffee cups, the latter hastily moved aside as a young man in a jogging outfit passed out white sheets of paper.

The papers were copies of the fraudulent, collective statement of the group. He sidestepped not one but two American flags (one draped on a wall and covering some unsightly electrical cords painted a sickly yellow) as he placed before each participant the paper they would all sign, betraying their fellow citizens with a staid disregard that one could only describe as banal.

But unlike their German counterparts of 1942, these attendees—several of whom were sporting baseball caps accompanying their business casual attire, many with wedding bands and diamond rings shining as they clasped their little white plastic pens—chose, in their unbridled enthusiasm, to make a visual record of their treachery.

Before a piece of drywall papered with the red-lettered emblem of the Republican Party of Arizona, each of the eight men and three women leaned forward, clasping their hands, some nodding and smiling as the document was read out aloud to them in order to dispel any doubt about what it was they were doing.

Meanwhile, the camera, held by an unknown operator, captured the moment in all its treachery, embedding all of the participants (one partially masked, the others boldly free of such trifles) in its pitiless, digital sweep:

After the recitation, each of the participants expressed their approval of the proceedings with a seemingly spontaneous, heartfelt exhibition of polite applause. As explained in this USA Today article from January:

By state statute, the only electors who mattered were those pledged to cast their votes for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, as they did Dec. 14, 2020, at noon.

The document the Republicans signed, obtained from the National Archives last year by the group American Oversight, overlooked that detail.

It described the “undersigned” as the “duly elected and qualified Electors for President and Vice President of the United States of America from the State of Arizona …”

That they were neither “elected” nor “qualified”
by the irredeemable and inconvenient fact that their candidate had lost the election seems to be completely absent from their concerns.
After all, they had fulfilled their task. Their sense of accomplishment is as visible as it was palpable.

Because they had, in fact, managed—
in a matter of mere minutes—
to betray not only their fellow Arizonans, but also their country and everything it has tried to represent and aspire to over the past two and a half centuries.

The importance of that moment seemed strangely
lost on them. But no matter.
The video will always exist to tell the story.

Watch__ 1.7 minutes;

https://twitter.com/i/status/1338600278459727872

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Regular Member Posts : 7317 Join date : 2014-07-29

3-24-2022

Trump's 'Big Lie' demolished again as new audit
of Arizona vote shows no fraud--

On Thursday, the Arizona Capitol Times reported that yet another audit of the Maricopa County election process ordered by the GOP-controlled Arizona State Senate has concluded —-
showing, as the others have, no signs of any misconduct in the 2020 presidential election, which President Joe Biden won by just over 10,000 votes.

"The report comes after the Arizona Senate and the county agreed in September 2021 that three independent computer security experts would review the county’s routers and answer the Senate’s questions in relation to the 2020 general election.

Both parties agreed that former Congressman John Shadegg would act as an impartial 'special master' to oversee
the process," reported Kyra Haas.

"Six months later, the findings, which were released late Wednesday, fall in line with the county’s own independent election audits conducted more than
a year ago."

The choice of Shadegg as special master was itself
a controversial decision, as he was revealed to have attended a November 4 rally for former President Donald Trump where election conspiracy theories were promulgated.

"Maricopa County Board of Supervisors chairman
Bill Gates said in a written statement that the report should be 'a final stake in the heart of the Senate’s so-called ‘audit,’' pointing out that it concluded the ballot tabulation system was____
not connected to the internet and that county routers were not connected to the election tabulation system," continued the report.
"He also noted that one of the three independent experts was recommended by the Senate."

This comes after a much more high-profile partisan process, in which the Senate brought in a Florida security company, Cyber Ninjas, to "audit" all of the ballots in Maricopa County.
This investigation also turned up no signs of fraud and even purported to find extra uncounted votes
for Biden.

Despite all of this, and despite Republican officials in Maricopa County agreeing the election was conducted fairly, Trump allies running for office in Arizona have continued to assert Democrats somehow stole the election, with gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake even calling for the arrest of Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

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Regular Member Posts : 7317 Join date : 2014-07-29

4-6-2022

Trump’s 'Big Lie' undermined by long-awaited
report from Arizona attorney general-

On Wednesday, according to The Arizona Republic, former President Donald Trump's "Big Lie" suffered yet another blow as Arizona's right-wing attorney general, Mark Brnovich, released a report that — __ despite doing all it could to find fault with the election procedures in the state —
failed to find any evidence that the election was actually stolen
or corrupted.
The results did not validate any of Trump's conspiracy theories.

"Overall, it made no accusations of wrongdoing on the part of
any individuals and did not cite specific instances of possible crimes, though it notes that the 'investigation is still developing
in material ways,'" said the report.

"It does not provide any evidence that the election outcome
would have been different. Joe Biden won Maricopa County, putting Arizona in his column and helping to seal his 2020 victory over Donald Trump."

What's more, according to Axios reporter Jeremy Duda, even Brnovich's limited findings of procedural flaws may have not been accurate:

When it comes to how Brnovich reached the figure that election officials on one day spent an average of just 4.6 seconds verifying each signature, Gates and Richer said he cherry-picked that from one employee, despite having access to 40 people involved in signature verificationpic.twitter.com/EZE4loQAPh
— Jeremy Duda (@Jeremy Duda)
https://twitter.com/jeremyduda/status/1511875814173802496

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Finally, Arizona's election fraud has been found!
Laurie Roberts, Arizona Republic
Thu, April 7, 2022, 2:50 PM·4 min read

At long last, that hallowed day has arrived. This historic moment when Arizona’s conspiracy crowd can rise, with one voice, and proclaim, “aHA!”

Yes, it seems that Arizona’s elusive election fraud has finally been uncovered.

The Arizona Republican Party was jubilant at the news, delivered in Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s interim report on the findings of the Maricopa County election audit.

“BREAKING NEWS: Arizona Audit w/ @KelliWardAZ. AG @GeneralBrnovich has determined widespread FRAUD in the Maricopa County 2020 election,” the Arizona Republican Party breathlessly reported.

https://twitter.com/AZGOP/status/1511867875203584002

State GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward was practically orgasmic.

“Perp walks & prosecutions on the way! #ElectionIntegrity,” she tweeted.

https://twitter.com/GeneralBrnovich/status/1511804128241979402

Ward even made a video about it (with a fundraising plea, no doubt, still to come).

“The report says the Election Integrity Unit review has uncovered instances of election fraud,” Ward reported to the party faithful. “Yes, election fraud by individuals who have been or will be prosecuted for various election crimes... Wow. That’s big. The words fraud and prosecuted are finally being used.”

Widespread election fraud = 9 cases in 3.4 million votes
Wow is right.

Especially if you read the footnote accompanying the 12-page report's lone sentence about election fraud – the one that references a report on all the fraud that Brnovich’s Elections Integrity Unit has uncovered in the 2020 presidential election.

All nine cases.

There are the six felons who somehow allegedly managed to vote while in Pima County jail.

And there are three women who returned their recently deceased mothers’ early ballots. Two of them live in Maricopa County, one in Cochise County.

So. Nine cases of election fraud. Out of 3.4 million votes cast.

Something’s widespread, all right, and rather fragrant, as well. But it isn’t fraud.

Within hours of Brnovich's report, Republican legislative hopeful Steve Zipperman had already pumped out a fundraising plea.

"Attorney General Brnovich has released a letter to Senator Fann (click below for full text), declaring that there WAS “Election Fraud” in the 2020 election...," wrote Zipperman, one of three Republicans hoping to replace Sen. Karen Fann. "As the ONLY Arizona Senate Candidate for LD-1 who declared that there WAS Election Fraud in 2020, Steve was attacked for his conviction. Steve’s insight, courage, and motivation to restore voter confidence in Arizona is essential."

No word Steve's ability to read a footnote.

Or maybe he intentionally omitted the fact that we are talking about nine whole cases of election fraud.

Not even Brnovich – the Senate candidate who is slipping in the polls and desperately chasing Donald Trump’s endorsement – could bring himself to claim Arizona's election was stolen, though he came as close as he possibly could. (Which is to say, not close at all).

He claimed there are “serious vulnerabilities” in Arizona’s electoral system, but he couldn’t point to a single instance of a phony vote as a result.

The only 'vulnerability' is Brnovich's Senate campaign
The only truly serious vulnerability here is Brnovich’s Senate campaign prospects, which is why I suspect that the attorney general who in 2020 had no problem with Arizona’s election now suddenly ... does.

In November 2020, as politicians all around him were diving for cover, Brnovich went on national TV to proclaim that there was simply no evidence that Donald Trump was robbed in Arizona. Then he went on to certify the election.

“It came down to: People split their ticket,” he told Fox Business’ Neil Cavuto. “People voted for Republicans down ballot, and they didn’t vote for President Trump or Martha McSally. So, that’s the reality.”

And yet here is Brnovich now, when there still is no evidence that Donald Trump was robbed.

“It’s frustrating,” he said on Steve Bannon’s podcast on Thursday morning. “It’s frustrating to all of us, what happened in 2020.”

More frustrating still is what is happening in 2022

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Non-Partisan Facts: https://usafacts.org

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» Republican Leaders Call Out Arizona Attorney General for Stolen Election Lies. WOW!
» Maricopa County Officials; Attorney General Mark Brnovich Issuing a False Report
» Attorney General Merrick Garland Speaks-
» Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Under Investigation
» D.C. Attorney General Sues Mark Zuckerberg