Claims that Maricopa County is not cooperating with Senate contractors assume that partnering with unqualified contractors with ties to the "Stop the Steal" movement is in the best interest of the County and its voters. This is not the case.
The 2020 General Election has been audited, certified, litigated, and found to be safe, secure, and accurate.
Board members supported post-election audits by qualified, experienced firms and voted to conduct two such independent audits.
Arizona Senate leadership chose not to hire qualified, experienced firms. Instead, they picked Cyber Ninjas, a small cybersecurity company with no expertise or experience auditing elections.
By bringing inexperienced, biased individuals into what should be a non-partisan endeavor, Arizona Senate leadership forfeited the possibility of a partnership on this audit.
Participating in an “audit” with unqualified actors would put the County at legal and financial risk and would undermine confidence in our election system. Therefore, the County is not participating in activities involving Senate contractors.
NEW: AZ Senate leadership hired unqualified auditors with a lack of election knowledge & a wealth of political bias. The claims these contractors advanced in yesterday’s briefing to senators enabling & enriching them were not based in fact. We refute more claims below 🧵
CLAIM: 74,000 more mail-in ballots were counted in Nov. 2020 than were sent.
FACTS: @MaricopaVote calculated the true number of requests and returns:
REQUESTS = 2,364,426
RETURNS = 1,918,024
So the claim is not just wrong but completely wrong. We don't know where Cyber Ninjas came up with that idea or number. Maricopa County provided additional details in the tweet below.
More fact checking from today’s Senate briefing on #AZAudit
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CLAIM: Maricopa County received 74,000 more mail-in ballots than we sent.
FACTS: In Maricopa County, we allow people to vote early in two ways: 1) by mail and 2) in-person at Vote Centers. These are all considered early votes.
The people who vote in-person use ballots provided at a Vote Center. This is not a new practice, so it's not unusual that we would have more early votes than mail-in ballots sent.
A few comments as we follow along with the Senate “hearing” (featuring 2 senators out of 30) about the “audit” (featuring the guy who cites his Antrim County work as a positive qualification):
If you didn’t subpoena it, there’s a reason you don’t have it.
The federal EAC says uncertified people cannot handle certified election equipment. The people testifying are uncertified. Always have been. This cannot be glossed over.
Real auditors have consistent policies and procedures. This ensures the results are reproducible and can be trusted. #RealAuditorsDont wait for a court order to come up with policies and procedures for their audit.
As @ArizonaAudit ballot counting wraps up, here’s a timeline of how we got here. 🧵⬇️
Oct-Nov. 2020: County conducts all required pre- and post-election tests, including statistically significant hand count audit that matched machine count 100%. Public meeting addresses constituent concerns. Arizona certifies the election results. maricopacountyaz.medium.com/2020-election-…
Nov-Dec. 2020: Over a dozen courts find election lawsuits lacking evidence and rule in Maricopa County’s favor. “The court finds no fraud, no misconduct, and no effect on the outcome of the election,” said Arizona Superior Court Judge Randall Warner. azmirror.com/2020/12/04/jud…