.@jacksellers opens BOS meeting with sharp words for @FannKfann and her audit, which he called “a grift disguised as an audit”
Sellers: “This board is done explaining anything to these people.”
Sellers says the “the ninjas” can’t find the allegedly deleted filed “because they don’t know what they’re doing.”
Count recorder @stephen_richer says county doesn’t have Dominion passwords because they’re not needed to run elections, just like you can run Windows on your PC without the source code
Richer: Dominion gave passwords to auditors hired by county, only gives passwords to accredited companies, which isn’t Cyber Ninjas
Richer: “No files from the 2020 election have been deleted.”
Richer says he asked @FannKfann about @ArizonaAudit tweet accusing county of deleting files, and she said she has no control over the account. “This is not how a principal-agent relationship works,” Richer says.
Richer says Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan doesn’t know what he’s doing or understand elections, and “has indulged even the craziest election conspiracy theories.”
.@billgatesaz: it would’ve been easy for the GOP-controlled board to turn over machines, ballots, but they had legal concerns so they went to court. Wasn’t enough for Senate. “There were multiple members of the Senate who wanted to see us behind bars.”
Gates says supervisors won’t go to Senate tomorrow to take part in “political theater broadcast by @OANN.”
“The Arizona Senate is better than that. ... We’re not going to be a part of that.”
.@Steve_Gallardo: “Unfortunately Karen Fann has allowed this to happen,” says Fann comments on audit Twitter account show “failed leadership”
Gallardo says he hopes other members of the Senate ask Fann to put an end to the audit
Gallardo says “outside forces” have taken control of Senate and “President Fann does not have the political courage, the wisdom to stop it.”
.@Steve_Chucri: “There was doubt cast (on the election), so I supported the audit. What I didn’t support was a mockery, and that’s what this has become.”
In their response letter to Fann, all five supervisors plus @stephen_richer and @Penzone4sheriff call for an end to the audit. “You certainly must recognize that things are not going well at the Coliseum.”
They also say the contractors don’t know what they’re doing, don’t understand the laws, procedures and best practices for elections. “It is inevitable that they will arrive at questionable conclusions.”
Clint Hickman says audit shouldn’t Be making allegations by tweet. Do a proper investigation and send us a report, he says, “and we will answer in court.”
Sellers ends meeting by saying he’s done responding to Senate questions about this “sham audit,” says they need to finish their report and prepare to defend it in court
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
State treasurer @KimberlyYeeAZ has announced her candidacy for governor, making her the first Republican of note to enter what could be a crowded GOP primary for the open seat. #AZGOV
Yee says our way of life is under attack, vows to oppose "socialist policies" and opportunity over handouts. The former aide to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says, "I’ve seen firsthand what socialist policies have done to states like California."
Yee: "President Trump’s America First agenda had our economy booming like never before. But now, our way of life is under attack by the corrupt press, reckless corporate leaders and politicians who put socialist ideals over people, our freedom of speech and our elections."
A few audit updates unrelated to Ken Bennett regaining control of the audit's Twitter account ...
Bennett said the audit team has counted between 350k to 400k ballots. They've counted all or part of 16 of the 46 pallets of ballots they received from the county, and broke into the first of the remaining 30 pallets yesterday.
The latest pallet they opened included duplicated ballots -- ballots that couldn't be read because they're damaged, large print, overseas format, Braille or other reasons, and had to be copied onto new ballots.
Good morning. I’m on pool duty this morning at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, and I’ll be providing audit updates for the next few hours. #azauditpool
Looks like everyone is still mostly getting prepared for the day. Of the 44 counting tables that are set up, only 13 appear to have people at them. It doesn’t look like anyone has started counting yet. #azauditpool
6 of the 13 ballot analysis tables are occupied. They look like they’re examining images at some of them. Others are waiting for things to get started.
Today is the IRC's first meeting without Yasmin Ramos from ADOA, who's been staffing the commission while it worked on hiring its own staff. "It feels very different without Yasmin," Chairwoman Neuberg says.
There’s 20 tables where 3-person teams are examining ballots. Each table has a turntable with 2 stands where they put the ballots. Each ballot spends 11-15 seconds on the stand as counters examine them and mark down their findings. #azauditpool
One of the tables has a bracket with a camera they’re using to take images of both sides of the ballots, which appear on a laptop screen. Every counting table had a laptop, but it looks like only one is being used to examine images of the ballots. #azauditpool
At 6 other tables, workers take photos of one side of the ballots with cameras mounted on brackets, and the images go to a laptop. Then another person shines a UV light on it. Then the ballot goes into the cardboard box it was originally stored in. #azauditpool
The Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission is about to begin today's meeting. You can watch here:
Here's today's agenda. We'll hear a discussion of the 3 mapping consultants and a possible decision on which firm they'll hire. publicmeetings.az.gov/sites/default/…
While the commissioners were shooting the breeze before the start of the meeting, we learned that Commissioner Mehl's father was a basketball star at the University of Cincinnati.