AZ ‘Audit’ In Shambles After Widespread Security Failures Revealed

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A guy who supports Donald Trump and was at the Capitol insurrection is in charge of the Arizona clown car audit. He has never done a voter audit prior to this and does it ever show. Attorney General (AG) Merrick Garland is investigating.

This week the Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) gave voice to her worries over the basically nonexistent procedures in the latest 2020 audit. The “auditors” swooped in and began recounting Arizona’s most populated county’s ballots. Republican-led legislators turned over all of the county’s original ballots.

It appears that those employed by the auditors have just been leaving the original ballots and computers lying around unattended. The AG is investigating because federal law mandates the ballots remain in the state official’s care.

The secretary of state added charges against the 2.1 million-ballot audit. Yet, in spite of efforts by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to block the subpoenas for election ballots, the audit went forward.

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Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

State Republican lawmakers hired a Florida-based private contractor, Cyber Ninjas, for the recount. Its chief executive was seriously biased. Even before he started the audit, he agreed publicly with Trump’s claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

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Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

Hobb sent her letter to former Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett (R). He is the voice of the Maricopa County election audit, according to The Washington Post. In it, she addressed both reported and observed actions, and that “has not been reassuring:”

‘Mr. Bennett, as a former Secretary of State, you know that our elections are governed by a complex framework of laws and procedures designed to ensure accuracy, security, and transparency. You also must therefore know that the procedures governing this audit ensure none of those things.’

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Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

Hobbs pointed out several alleged practices observed by her office that she found “troubling,” The Arizona Mirror wrote:

‘[T]hat the observers associated with the audit are now instructed not to speak with the SOS observers, and that counters are instructed to not to talk when an SOS observer is near their table.’

The secretary of state then argued that there has been “inadequate physical security of ballots:”

‘It appears that boxes containing ballots were stored on the counting floor in fenced-off areas’ This chain-link fencing, however, appears to be only about 8 feet tall, and there is no “ceiling” or top fencing to prevent an unauthorized person from climbing the exterior fencing to gain access to the ballots.’

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Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

‘[Several times] it has been noted that the computers used by the forensics teams have been left unlocked and unattended, sometimes with files still open. Failing to adequately secure these workstations when not in use could allow anyone on the floor to access them and alter dates, files, or programs,” she wrote.’

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Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

“This is even more concerning given the open questions about hiring practices that have allowed those with clear political bias — and a desire to overturn the results of the 2020 election — to be present and participating on the floor.’

There is a Twitter account linked to the audit, Maricopa Arizona Audit. It answered Hobb’s letter, arguing that the secretary of state had called the audit “a farce” and advertised it as “baseless claimes [sic] about this forensic audit.”

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Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

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