CHECKS AND BALANCES: In each of the three hand counts performed during 2020, the Republican, Democrat, and Libertarian appointees found a 100% match to the tabulation equipment results.
A hand count audit following the Nov. election included a random & statistically significant sampling of both mail and Election Day ballots, verifying over 47,000 contests. State-required equipment tests & our 2 independent audits confirmed no vote switching or hacking occurred.
“Duplicated” ballots were challenged and the accuracy of Maricopa County’s process was confirmed in court. Signatures on mail-in ballots were challenged and expert review found no forgeries.
The results of the Nov. 2020 election were certified by the Secretary of State, Governor, and Congress.
NEW: Here’s round two of our #FactCheck on several of the claims Cyber Ninjas identified as the most serious in their report: 🧵
CLAIM: Election management database purged
BOTTOM LINE: This is misleading. Nothing was purged. Cyber Ninjas don’t understand the business of elections. We can't keep everything on the EMS server because it has storage limits.
We have data archival procedures for our elections and @MaricopaVote archived everything related to the November election on backup drives. So everything still exists.
EXPLANATION: The Election Management System (EMS) database does not store election information forever.
NEW: After a preliminary review of the draft #azaudit report, we can provide a #FactCheck on several of the claims Cyber Ninjas identified as the most serious in their report:
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CLAIM: 23,344 mail-in ballots voted from a prior address.
BOTTOM LINE: Cyber Ninjas still don’t understand this is legal under federal election law. To label it a “critical” concern is either intentionally misleading or staggeringly ignorant. AZ senators should know this too.
EXPLANATION: 1) Military and overseas voters can cast a “federal only ballot” despite living outside the U.S. The address tied to their ballot would be their prior address in AZ.
A thread about election audits ahead of the Senate hearing today:
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Good audits built trust. B/c they are conducted by experienced professionals who use well-defined, proven processes which produce reproducible results, good election audits provide quantifiable proof that that reported results match the canvass. Board members support good audits.
Regardless of what ends up in the final report, what Cyber Ninjas & co. conducted was not a good audit. It did not build trust.
NEW: Board votes to approve an agreement with the AZ Senate that keeps county routers & other sensitive materials out of the hands of Cyber Ninjas. The agreement also protects taxpayers and ends a legal dispute over the Senate’s ongoing election review.
Per Chairman @jacksellers: "The Cyber Ninjas will never be able to touch the routers or access our data. An independent third party can confirm what we've always said: the election equipment was not connected to the internet and no vote switching occurred.
And our residents, law enforcement, and courts can all rest assured that their data and equipment are protected.”
At a time when more big revelations are being promised about alleged election fraud or wrongdoing in 2020, a reminder of some other “big revelations” to date:
Deleted database- FALSE
74K phantom ballots- FALSE
Voter roll discrepancies- FALSE
Illegitimate ballots counted- FALSE
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We have consistently refuted falsehoods with facts, but misinformation spreads faster & more widely than truth. Sometimes during public hearings or staged events. Nearly non-stop on social media. Often by people w/limited knowledge of election laws, procedures, or best practices.
Take Cyber Ninjas and subcontractors, for example. What they’re saying can sound plausible to people unfamiliar with election operations. Like the false statement below about the 74K “phantom ballots.”
Since January, Maricopa County has provided 2.1 million paper ballots, 385 Election Day tabulators, 9 central count tabulators, and 8+ terabytes of data including tabulator logs, voter records, clones of servers & images of early ballot affidavits, and ballot images.
Despite not agreeing with the Senate leadership’s choice of contractor, we complied and cooperated with all demands that were safe for constituents and supported by law.
AZ Senate leadership turned all of these items over to Cyber Ninjas & others, "enabling and enriching unvetted, unqualified, private companies with known biases who never should have touched federally-certified elections equipment or the people’s ballots." content.govdelivery.com/accounts/AZMAR…