Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Rejects Kari Lake’s and Mark Finchem’s Appeal Alleging Arizona Officials Lied to the Court, No Sanctions Granted

Kari Lake and Mark Finchem

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal from Kari Lake and Mark Finchem alleging that Arizona officials made false statements to the courts regarding their lawsuit to stop the use of electronic voting machine tabulators. The panel of three justices, two who were appointed to the bench by Democratic presidents, gave no reason for their dismissal on June 20, and also denied a motion for sanctions by defendant Maricopa County, which was filed three days prior. 

Lake’s and Finchem’s Motion to Recall Mandate, drafted by attorney Kurt Olsen, stated, “Maricopa’s violations of Arizona law mean its elections have not been shown to be any more reliable than a Ouija board.” The motion said the officials’ alleged lies and perjury, which involved lying about committing misdemeanors, were discovered after obtaining Maricopa County’s tabulator system log (SLOG) files, which the pair maintained contradicted the statements of officials. 

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Maricopa County Elections Worker Arrested for Stealing Tabulator Programming FOB/Key Also Allegedly Broke into AZ Senate

Walter Ringfield

An Arizona State Capitol insider with knowledge of recent incidents there told The Arizona Sun Times that progressive activist Walter Ringfield, Jr. – the same man who was arrested for allegedly stealing an election machine tabulator key fob – was caught breaking and entering into the Arizona Senate recently. Video surveillance footage allegedly caught him stealing collectible coins from the security area and walking around on the third floor unauthorized. When apprehended by security, he was asked to leave. The insiders said that Ringfield told security he was there to deliver some documents to State Senator Juan Mendez (D-Tempe).

News reports about the election key fob theft broke a Monday. According to a police report obtained by The Sun Times, surveillance video shows Ringfield putting the set into his pocket.

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Election Integrity Advocates Score Wins in Majority of Lawsuits Ahead of November

Several election lawsuits filed recently with significant impact on the 2024 presidential election have been decided in favor of election integrity proponents, ensuring laws remain enforced ahead of the November election.

The lawsuits filed focused on candidate eligibility, different changes in law, and alleged violations of election laws. Most of them have resulted in wins for election integrity, while two are ongoing.

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GOP Goes on Election Integrity Offense Before November with Lawsuits, Congressional Probes and Laws

Republicans have prioritized election integrity this year with new laws, lawsuits, and congressional investigative subpoenas ahead of the November general election. And they have already scored some wins against Democratic-led jurisdictions.

The multifaceted approach in 2024 contrasts with the GOP strategy four years ago that mostly focused on litigation only.

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Secretary of State Urges Tennesseans to Become Poll Workers for Upcoming 2024 Elections

Poll Workers

Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett is urging those eligible across the Volunteer State to become poll workers for the upcoming August 1 primary elections and the November 5 general election.

The job of poll workers is to help polling sites run smoothly during early voting and on Election Day by conducting various tasks, including greeting voters, answering questions, explaining how to cast a ballot, and counting votes at their community locations.

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House Republicans Forcing Tough and Defining Votes on Democrats Ahead of November Election

Committee on House Administration chairman Bryan Steil

Ahead of the November election, Republicans have forced tough votes on Democrats that may hurt their chances at the polls. From election security to law enforcement to illegal immigration, House Republicans have passed bills that most House Democrats have voted against, despite Americans’ prevalent concerns about those issues.

According to the Center Square Voters’ Voice Poll, conducted with Noble Predictive Insights in March, when given a range of top concerns, 45 percent of likely voters said inflation/price increases, 44 percent said illegal immigration, and 24 percent said the economy/jobs.

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‘Get Trump’ Virtual Conference on Lawfare Speakers Poke Holes in January 6 and Trump Legal Cases

January Six

The Arizona civic organization Davos in the Desert hosted a “Get Trump” virtual conference on lawfare Tuesday, featuring some of the country’s top lawfare experts.

Linda Denno, an associate dean and associate professor at the University of Arizona who hosts a podcast with Berkeley constitutional law professor John Yoo, spoke about Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of former President Donald Trump for taking home documents from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago residence. Brian Lupo, an investigative journalist who runs a podcast focusing on election corruption and lawfare, spoke about the unfair prosecutions of the January 6 protesters.

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Democrat Appointed Judge Throws Out Abe Hamadeh’s Petition for Writ of Quo Warranto to Remove AZ AG Mayes from Office, Suggests Sanctions

Abe Hamadeh

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Susanna Pineda, who was appointed to the bench by Democratic Governor Janet Napolitano, granted a Motion to Dismiss filed by Maricopa County officials in response to Abe Hamadeh’s Petition for Writ of Quo Warranto. She also suggested she would award sanctions against Hamadeh, other plaintiffs, and their attorney. Hamadeh had asked to remove Attorney General Kris Mayes from office and fix the 2022 election problems, including up to redoing it.

Ryan Heath, Hamadeh’s attorney, told The Arizona Sun Times, “I worked in judicial chambers as an intern in law school. Before this ruling, I’d never seen a case where a judge blatantly ignores arguments and allegations in order to impose sanctions. The appeal is already drafted, and I’m looking forward to overturning the trial court’s ruling on appeal.”

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Maricopa County Republican Leadership Unanimously Censures Arizona Supreme Court for ‘Injustice’ and ‘Bias’ in Handling Election-Related Lawsuits

The Maricopa County Republican Committee’s Executive Guidance Committee unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday censuring the Arizona Supreme Court (ASC) for its handling of election lawsuits. The censure came after the state’s highest court issued two relatively favorable rulings for Republicans: reversing sanctions against the Arizona Republican Party for an election-related case and upholding Arizona’s old 1864 law restricting abortion.

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Navajo County Officials Stonewall Precinct Committeemens’ Request to Create Election Integrity Task Force and Conduct Hand Counts

Celia Laughlin

Concerned Republican precinct committeemen and citizens in Navajo County, a small Republican-leaning county located in the northeastern part of the state, asked the Navajo County Board of Supervisors (NCBOS) recently to take election integrity measures, but are being stonewalled. 

Celia Laughlin told The Arizona Sun Times that in place of addressing their questions and requests at the last board meeting on April 23, Navajo County Manager Bryan Layton “gave a poll worker’s civics class instruction instead.” Layton was appointed county manager less than a year ago, and prior to that he worked in Texas for 10 years. 

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During Oral Arguments at the Arizona Court of Appeals in Kari Lake’s Election Lawsuit, Her Attorney Alleged Numerous Lies by Election Official

Kari Lake Hearing

A panel of three Arizona Court of Appeals judges heard oral arguments on Thursday in Kari Lake’s Rule 60(b) appeal of her election lawsuit. Lake’s attorney, Kurt Olsen, alleged that Maricopa County Co-Elections Director Scott Jarrett told numerous lies.

Lake’s team filed the Rule 60(b) motion requesting a second trial based on newly found evidence, but the trial court judge, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson, greatly limited the scope of her second trial and then ruled against her.

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Arizona Supreme Court Unanimously Reverses Sanctions Against AZGOP for Its Lawsuit Challenging Maricopa County’s Hand Count

The Arizona Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling on Thursday reversing an award of sanctions against the Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) and its attorneys for bringing an election integrity lawsuit. The AZGOP sued Maricopa County election officials over how they conducted the mandatory hand count audit after the 2020 election. The state’s highest court said there is some merit to election lawsuits, even if a “long shot,” and ruling against them for questioning an “election’s legitimacy” would have a “chilling effect.”

The AZGOP issued a statement after the state Supreme Court’s decision.

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Attorney General Kris Mayes Explains Why She is Prosecuting Arizona’s 2020 Alternate Slate of Electors for Trump, Gets Law Wrong

Kris Mayes

Attorney General Kris Mayes held a press conference on Wednesday to announce the indictment of Arizona’s alternate slate of electors for former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, along with other named and unnamed co-conspirators and unindicted co-conspirators including Trump.

Mayes made several incorrect assertions about the law.

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Six Election Integrity Bills Signed Into Law or Awaiting Signature from Gov. Lee

Tim Rudd

One member of the Tennessee General Assembly has been fighting for election integrity during the current legislative session, passing six bills that have either been signed into law or are ready for a signature from Gov. Bill Lee (R).

State Representative Tim Rudd (R-Murfreesboro) has successfully passed a half a dozen laws aimed at securing Tennessee’s election process. 

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Democratic Governors Veto GOP Election Integrity Bills Despite Provable Election Fraud Issues

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs

Democratic governors are vetoing election integrity legislation passed by Republican-led state legislatures, despite allegations, investigations, and convictions of election fraud occurring across the U.S. Those convictions require proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the crime, in fact, occurred.

Over the last few months, Democratic governors in Arizona, North Carolina, and Wisconsin have vetoed legislation that Republican-led state legislatures passed to help secure elections, arguing that their concerns are unfounded or their solutions unnecessary. However, there has been recent election fraud investigations and convictions in those states that led to the passing of the legislation.

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Kari Lake’s Attorneys Send Letter to Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer Regarding Settling His Defamation Lawsuit

Kari Lake and Stephen Richer

Kari Lake agreed earlier this month to settle the defamation lawsuit against her filed by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, citing the enormous cost it would take to go through a full trial. Her attorneys sent a letter on Monday to Richer’s attorneys regarding Richer’s proposed meet and confer terms, rejecting all three proposals from him, at times sarcastically. 

Lake is running for the U.S. Senate and still fighting two election lawsuits, one over her loss in the gubernatorial race and another challenging the use of voting machine tabulators in elections. Richer filed a defamation lawsuit against her for stating that he intentionally sabotaged the 2022 election. Approximately 300,000 ballots in the 2022 election lacked a chain of custody, a class 2 misdemeanor, but the county has strenuously fought litigation efforts to allow Lake to inspect the ballot affidavit envelopes and other requests from her and voter integrity groups related to the election anomalies.

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Trump’s Former Attorney John Eastman Relays His Disbarment Story at Davos in the Desert’s Lawfare Event in Phoenix

Donald Trump’s former attorney and constitutional scholar, John Eastman, spoke to the civic organization Davos in the Desert Wednesday about the lawfare he experienced, which resulted in disbarment and prosecution. The event was part of a larger conference the organization will broadcast all day on May 21, featuring legal experts discussing the lawfare against Trump.

Eastman, who was disbarred for advising Trump and representing him in challenging election illegalities in the 2020 election, began his talk by discussing how judges dismissed many of the 2020 election lawsuits for lack of standing. A judge in Pennsylvania dismissed one of their lawsuits, claiming that only the state legislature can challenge the election illegalities. However, other judges handling the 2020 election lawsuits ruled that political parties and candidates have standing.

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Conservative Candidate Brad Miller Running Against Election Fraud Denying Pinal County Attorney Kent Volkner

Brad Miller

Republican Brad Miller, a longtime prosecutor who served as Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Marines, where he still works as a prosecutor, is challenging incumbent Pinal County Attorney Republican Kent Volkmer, an election fraud denier, for the office. Miller points to a long list of problems with the office, including mishandling criminal issues and election integrity, as reasons change is needed. 

Miller, who also practices civil law, states his principles on his website, “We must protect our borders, we must stand by and support our police, and we must safeguard our way of life.” He champions the Second Amendment, “I will protect your right to own a gun!” He said he will keep “woke policies” like ESG, “anti-American indoctrination,” and “dubious sexual education” pushed by “extreme leftist ideologies” out of education. He will “stand tall and provide a voice for parents and elected officials, allowing them to make informed decisions based on unbiased information.”

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Wisconsin Election Integrity Journalist Who Exposed Allegedly Illegal Democratic ‘Smurfing’ Donations Arrested

Peter Bernegger

Peter Bernegger, president of Election Watch in Wisconsin, was arrested last week after filing complaints against officials and candidates he exposed for accepting donations allegedly facilitated by progressive activists in the names of people who were unaware of them. He was charged with a felony, simulating a legal process.

Bernegger posted on X after posting bail and being released, “This is politically motivated where they are trying to shut me up, to shut us all up. For those who don’t know, this is the second time they have come after me; the first time was dismissed in 15 minutes when the judge learned the truth of the matter.”

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Election Integrity Investigator Releases New Information About Likely Manipulation of Maricopa County’s Voting Machine Tabulators in the 2020 and 2022 Elections

Ben Cotton, an IT expert proficient in forensics and digital systems analysis, issued a declaration last month about flaws with Maricopa County’s voting machine tabulators. It was included in Kari Lake’s and Mark Finchem’s latest pleadings in their complaint challenging the use of voting machine tabulators in elections. One of those findings was that unauthorized executable programs were installed on the machines at least three times during the 2020 election, which could be used to alter election results without detection.

Cotton, whose firm CyFIR was hired by the Arizona Senate in 2021 to audit the 2020 election, summarized his findings, “It is clear, based on my findings, that unauthorized programs, databases, configuration settings and actions were present on the voting systems in Maricopa County for the elections in both 2020 and 2022.”

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Kari Lake and Mark Finchem File New Brief with U.S. Supreme Court in Voting Machine Tabulator Case After Defendants Fail to Respond

Kari Lake Mark Finchem

Kari Lake and Mark Finchem filed a Supplemental Brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, adding support for their Petition for Writ of Certiorari and Motion to Expedite asking the court to hear an appeal of the dismissal of their lawsuit to stop the use of electronic voting machine tabulators in elections. The defendant Arizona officials failed to file a response to the pair’s petition, boosting the chances SCOTUS might accept the case and implying they did not object to the statements in the petition. 

The new brief added more allegations of false representations by Maricopa County officials. It said the courts relied on their false representations when they dismissed and affirmed their case, sanctioning the pair’s lawyers. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the plaintiffs’ injuries were “too speculative” for Article III, which requires showing of an injury. The brief said the court based this determination “in part on false representations that Maricopa County performed required preelection logic and accuracy (‘L&A’) testing and used certified and approved voting system software.” The court “expressly relied on false representations that Maricopa’s elections were protected from manipulation.”

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D.C. Bar Disciplinary Panel Makes Nonbinding Preliminary Determination of Culpability for a ‘Thought Crime’ in Disbarment Trial of Trump’s Former DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark

Jeffrey Clark

The disciplinary trial of Donald Trump’s former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark wrapped up on Thursday with the D.C. Bar’s disciplinary panel making a nonbinding preliminary determination that Clark was culpable on at least one of the two counts against him.

For drafting a letter that was never sent to Georgia officials advising them of their options in dealing with the 2020 election illegalities, he was charged with engaging in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation, and engaging in conduct that seriously interferes with the administration of justice, Rules 8.4(c) and (d) of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

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During Jeffrey Clark’s Disbarment Trial, Cyber Security Expert Says Georgia’s 2020 Election Was Not ‘Conducted According to the Law’

Harry Haury

The second and final week of the disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former DOJ official began to wind down on Wednesday with more testimony from operations security expert Harry Haury. Clark, who is also a defendant in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO prosecution, is being disciplined for drafting a letter that was never sent to Georgia officials after the 2020 election advising them of their options for dealing with the election illegalities.

The trial is expected to wrap up on Thursday with closing statements.

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Georgia Election Integrity Expert Lists Significant Fraud in State’s 2020 Election at Jeffrey Clark’s Disbarment Trial

Garland Favorito

The disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former DOJ official, Jeffrey Clark, continued into its second and final week on Tuesday, featuring testimony from three witnesses for him.

Clark, a defendant in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO prosecution, is being disciplined for drafting a letter never sent to Georgia officials after the 2020 election advising them of their options for dealing with the election illegalities.

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Former Fulton County Elections Official Explains Why He Voted Against Certification Twice During Jeffrey Clark’s Disbarment Trial

The second week of the disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former DOJ official, Jeffrey Clark, resumed its second week on Monday. Clark, who is also a defendant in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ RICO prosecution, is being disciplined for drafting a letter that was never sent to Georgia officials after the 2020 election advising them of their options for dealing with the election illegalities.

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ACLU Threatens Lawsuit if Governor Kemp Signs New Georgia Election Bill

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp

Georgia’s chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) declared on Friday it will sue the state if Governor Brian Kemp signs a bill, already approved by lawmakers, to strengthen election integrity in the state.

The legislation, SB 189, removes the Secretary of State from the Georgia Board of Elections, creates new conflict of interest provisions for election officials and private individuals involved with the election process, revises the process for challenging presidential electors and creates new chain of custody requirements for mail-in ballots.

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Disbarment Trial of Trump’s Former DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark Features Stonewalling by D.C. Bar’s Attorney

Jeffery Clark

The disbarment trial of Donald Trump’s former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark began last week, featuring testimony from several prominent statisticians. Clark, who is also a defendant in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s RICO prosecution, is being disciplined for drafting a letter that was never sent to Georgia officials after the 2020 election advising them of their options for dealing with the election illegalities. The trial is expected to last two weeks, into this coming week.

Hamilton Fox, the D.C. Bar’s attorney who has aggressively gone after other Trump attorneys, attempted to keep most of Clark’s witnesses from testifying. He described them as “sketchy witnesses” who want to talk about “supposed irregularities.” However, one of the witnesses who ultimately testified on Thursday had been allowed to testify in the similar disbarment trial of Trump’s former attorney and constitutional legal scholar John Eastman last year. 

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State Senator Anthony Kern Holds Press Conference Blasting AZ AG Kris Mayes’ Convening a Grand Jury Against Him and Other Alternate Electors

Arizona State Sen Anthony Kern

State Senator Anthony Kern (R-Glendale) held a press conference on March 24 denouncing Attorney General Kris Mayes convening a grand jury to indict Arizona’s alternate slate of electors for Donald Trump from 2020. Reports circulated earlier in March that Mayes issued grand jury subpoenas to people connected to Trump’s attempt to find fraud in the 2020 election.

Kern, who is running for Congress in Arizona’s Congressional District 8 to replace outgoing Representative Debbie Lesko amidst a competitive field of primary candidates, began, “What’s so wrong about standing up for the rule of law and our Arizona constitutional principles, and when did that become a crime?”

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Arizona Election Officials Report 2,000 Vote Discrepancy in Recent Primary, Predict Delays in November

People in Line to Vote

Maricopa County executive director Zach Schira claimed on Tuesday that recent changes to the state’s elections as a result of a “landmark” election integrity bill that enjoyed overwhelming support in the Arizona Legislature.

Schira told The Arizona Republic that complying with a provision in HB 2785 which requires election workers to count the number of early ballots at each polling location required an average of 30 to 45 minutes at polling locations across the state for the March 19 presidential preference election.

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Progressive Election Lawyer Marc Elias Attacks New Election Integrity Lawsuits in Arizona, Claims Republicans Want to Cheat

Republicans have filed five election integrity lawsuits recently in Arizona, attracting the ire of election fraud denier and progressive attorney Marc Elias.

Elias issued a video last week analyzing some of the lawsuits, which he described as “anti-voting lawsuits” that seek to make it “harder to vote and easier to cheat,” part of a “plan Republicans have to undermine elections and suppress voters.”

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Outcomes of the 92 Election Cases from the 2020 Election Reveal That Judges Didn’t Review Evidence or Address Election Fraud, Part 2

The Arizona Sun Times examined the outcomes of the 92 election cases challenging illegalities in the 2020 election and determined that contrary to reports in the mainstream media, almost all of the judges did not consider evidence of election fraud.

This was in large part because the lawsuits didn’t allege election fraud, which is a very specific crime that usually requires a lot of discovery. Lawsuits challenging election outcomes generally cite other laws that are broken, which has long been considered sufficient to overturn elections. Judges issued their rulings in the 2020 cases without getting into the evidence or much discovery.

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Jeffrey Clark’s Attorney Tells Georgia Judge Six Reasons Why Fani Willis Should be Disqualified, Calls Her Office a ‘Global Laughingstock’

Harry MacDougald

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee heard arguments last week from defense attorneys about why Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified from her RICO case against former President Donald Trump and his associates.  

Willis had an affair with Nathan Wade, the prosecutor she appointed to lead the case. This caused attorneys, including Harry MacDougald, who represents Jeffrey Clark, to list six conflicts of interest she faces in a presentation to the court.

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Constitutional Attorney Lists Five Ways Georgia DA Fani Willis Committed Misconduct Prosecuting Trump and His Associates

Fani Willis

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is currently under fire for appointing her former lover, Nathan Wade, as chief prosecutor in the RICO prosecution of Donald Trump and his associates, and a nationally recognized constitutional expert said that is not the only major misconduct. The expert, who preferred not to be identified, said there are five other instances of improper behavior by Willis.

The first instance was so egregious that it undermined the entire grounds for the prosecution, the expert said. The prosecution arose from a phone call between Trump, his associates, and Georgia officials discussing what to do about illegal activity in Georgia during the 2020 election. The call was recorded by a deputy secretary of state under Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was in Florida at the time. Unlike Georgia, where only one party on a phone call needs to know it is being recorded, Florida has a multi-party consent law for recording phone conversations, which means all parties on the call must know about the recording and agree to it. None of the exceptions applied, such as law enforcement or where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.

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Federal Court Upholds Most of Arizona’s Two New Election Integrity Laws Regarding Proof of Citizenship, Found No ‘Discriminatory Purpose’

Register to Vote

Both sides are calling a federal district court’s ruling a win, which upheld most of two new Arizona election integrity laws. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton struck down parts of HB 2492, which requires proof of citizenship in order to register to vote, and HB 2243, which requires quarterly reporting of the number of Arizona voters who did not list their citizenship status.

State Senator Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), the primary sponsor of both bills, expressed his disappointment to The Arizona Sun Times. “Bolton’s ruling is potentially the most intellectually dishonest, schizophrenic legal determination in the last half century. Bolton has shown a clear disdain for legislative authority, while simultaneously weaponizing the court against common sense. The idea that a person wouldn’t need to produce documentary proof of citizenship to vote in U.S. elections is lunacy. I can only hope that this case ultimately works its way to the U.S. Supreme Court where there still remains a semblance of sanity thanks to President Trump’s justices and the great Clarence Thomas.”

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America First Legal Expands Landmark Election Integrity Case to Yavapai County After Maricopa County Tried to ‘Sabotage’ It

Voting Line

America First Legal (AFL) “expanded a landmark Arizona election integrity case” last week, suing Yavapai County. AFL said in a press release that it withdrew the initial election integrity complaint against Maricopa County election officials due to “Maricopa County’s schemes to sabotage the case,” re-filing it in Yavapai County. The new lawsuit, which is substantially the same as the initial one, added an additional allegation, that during the 2022 elections, at least one voting center in Yavapai County had printer malfunctions that caused long lines. 

James Rogers, America First Legal Senior Counsel, said in a statement, “What is Maricopa County’s response to the legitimate concerns of its citizens? Frivolous procedural motions trying to delay the case and ensure it is not heard on its merits. This voluntary dismissal is not the end of this case, but just the beginning.”

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State Representative Justin Heap Enters Race for Maricopa County Recorder, Cites 300,000 Disenfranchised Republican Voters in 2022

Justin Heap

State Representative Justin Heap (R-Mesa) announced at the State Capitol during a press conference on Wednesday that he will enter the Republican primary race for Maricopa County Recorder, challenging incumbent Stephen Richer.

Richer has come under extensive criticism for maintaining that there were only minor problems during the 2022 election, fighting back through the courts against attempts to obtain public records about the election and other related election integrity lawsuits.

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Abe Hamadeh Files Response to Arizona Election Officials’ Motions to Dismiss His Quo Warranto Action to Remove Kris Mayes from Office

Abe Hamadeh

Abe Hamadeh continues his election litigation challenging his 280-vote loss to Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes, including filing a Petition for Writ of Quo Warranto to remove Mayes from office. This past week, he filed a response to the Arizona officials’ Motions to Dismiss that lawsuit.

Represented by Ryan Heath of Heath Law, Hamadeh laid out the status of the case in the opening of his 43-page Response. “Respondent Kris Mays, Defendant Fontes, and the Maricopa County Defendants seek to deny Petitioner and many other voters their fundamental rights guaranteed by the Arizona Constitution for the sake of expediency,” he said. “The Maricopa County Defendants also seek to avoid accountability for their failures, which plausibly resulted in thousands (and likely hundreds of thousands) of illegal votes affecting the results of the 2022 General Election for the office of Attorney General (the ‘Contested Race’). Due to Maricopa County officials’ lack of candor, the circumstances permitting Petitioner to bring this action were not known — and could not have been known — until more than half a year after the official canvass was taken for the Contested Race.’

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Arizona Free Enterprise Club Files Lawsuit Against Adrian Fontes over ‘Illegal’ and ‘Most Radical’ Elections Procedures Manual in Arizona’s History

The Arizona Free Enterprise Club (AFEC) filed a lawsuit last week against Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, accusing him of making illegal changes to the state’s Election Procedures Manual (EPM). Represented by the America First Policy Institute, Davillier Law Group, and Grand Canyon Legal Center, AFEC said the revisions improperly place protected political speech at risk of criminal prosecution and have an unconstitutional chilling effect on protected political speech.

“Secretary Fontes has produced one of the most radical elections procedures manuals in our state’s history,” said Scot Mussi, AFEC’s president. “If the illegal provisions of this manual are allowed to stand, the integrity and transparency of state elections would continue to dissipate at the hands of leftwing ideologues. We hope the court agrees with our arguments and forces the Secretary to adhere to state law.”

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We the People AZ Alliance Introduces AVII Ballot Hand Count Method to Senate Elections Committee, Already Adopted by Maricopa County Republicans

Shelby Busch

The Senate Elections Committee heard a presentation from We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA) co-founder Shelby Busch on Monday regarding its plan for restoring trust in elections by including hand counts of ballots.

Both the Arizona Republican Party, the Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC), and Arkansas Republicans have already implemented the AVII method, which is known as the Arkansas Voter Integrity Initiative, in its party elections. Republicans in Arkansas want to make the AVII method law by putting the question to voters as a constitutional amendment.

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Gina Godbehere Jumps into Maricopa County Attorney Primary Race Against Incumbent Rachel Mitchell

Gina Godbehere

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell will face the same challenger in the Republican primary this year as she did in the 2022 special election Gina Godbehere.

Godbehere announced her campaign last week. The Maricopa County Supervisors chose Mitchell in early 2022 to replace the previous county attorney, Alistar Adel, who resigned from office due to health issues. Adel passed away in 2022. Mitchell has accumulated considerable criticism from Republicans for actions such as representing the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBOS) twice, asking for sanctions against Kari Lake’s election attorneys.

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America First Legal Lawsuit Against Maricopa County Over Election Illegalities Raises Issues Other Judges Previously Found Had Merit in 2020 Election Cases

America First Legal (AFL) filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Maricopa County, alleging numerous violations of election law since 2020. Some of the issues raised in the complaint were brought up in similar lawsuits brought around the country challenging irregularities in the 2020 election, where judges found they had merit.

The AFL listed eight issues in its complaint, and mainly asked for declaratory judgment to stop the county from repeating the wrongdoing and comply with law. The first was lack of chain of custody for tens of thousands of ballots, a class 2 misdemeanor. The second was failure to conduct reconciliation as required by law, which refers to comparing the number of votes cast at polling centers to the number of voters who checked in. The third was the failure of the voting center printers, disenfranchising voters. The fourth was the racially discriminatory location of vote centers, disadvantaging Native Americans and whites who lived farther from the locations than others. 

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The Pima Integrity Project and CONELRAD Group Expose ‘Malfeasance,’ ‘Maladministration’ and Possible RICO Violations in Pima County’s Recent Elections

The CONELRAD Group, a team of mostly former intelligence and military officers located primarily in southern Arizona that exposed what it believes is malfeasance in Pinal County’s 2022 election, has teamed up with the Pima Integrity Project (PIP) to expose similar malfeasance in Pima County’s elections. Led by database expert Tim Laux, the group of election researchers in PIP said it believes it found doctored canvassing reports and large numbers of newly registered voters who voted before they were eligible, among other illegal activities.

Jack Dona of CONELRAD told The Arizona Sun Times the findings could rise to the level of criminal racketeering. Dona holds 43 intelligence and technical certifications and diplomas from civilian colleges, technical schools, and military academies and served in military intelligence, retiring as a master sergeant/first sergeant.

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Arizona House Passes ‘Landmark’ Election Integrity Bill with Overwhelming Support to Create Signature Verification Standards, Promote Voter ID

The Arizona State House voted on Thursday overwhelmingly in favor of a “landmark” election integrity bill that would set the state’s official standards for signature verification and promote the use of voter ID in early voting, among other improvements to the state’s voting system.

Representative Alexander Kolodin (R-Scottsdale), who sponsored the legislation, celebrated the passage of HB 2785 on Thursday in a press release that declared the law will bring “landmark election integrity reforms.”

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Kari Lake’s Attorney Bryan Blehm Files Answer to the State Bar of Arizona’s Disciplinary Charges, Addresses Issue Regarding 35,563 Unaccounted for Ballots

Arizona State Bar

The State Bar of Arizona (SBA) is proceeding with two counts against Kari Lake’s attorney Bryan Blehm for referencing in a brief that 35,563 ballots were unaccounted for due to chain of custody problems at Maricopa County’s third-party early ballot processor, Runbeck Election Services, and for criticizing the Arizona judiciary. Representing himself, Blehm filed a 94-page Answer to the SBA’s charges on January 25. 

In Count 1, the SBA accused Blehm of “misleading” the Arizona Supreme Court. The first half of the SBA’s case against Blehm consists of claiming that he lied when he stated in a pleading that both parties in Lake’s election challenge agreed that there was a discrepancy of 35,563 ballots unaccounted for due to chain of custody problems at Runbeck. Blehm asserted in the Lake brief, “The record indisputably reflects at least 35,563 Election Day early ballots, for which there is no record of delivery to Runbeck, were added at Runbeck….” 

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Gina Swoboda Explains Why She Was Reluctant at First to Run for AZGOP Chair

Newly-elected chair of the Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) Gina Swoboda joined Thursday’s edition of The Afternoon Addiction with Garret Lewis on KFYI to discuss why she was reluctant at first to run as the AZGOP chair, explaining how a call from former President Donald Trump ultimately changed her mind.

“It was impossible to say no,” Swoboda said. “It was surreal. I think any one of us when called upon to serve is going to serve.”

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Gina Swoboda Explains How Her Election Integrity Work Will Play a Role in Her New Position as AZGOP Chair

AZGOP Chair Gina Swoboda

Newly-elected chair of the Arizona Republican Party (AZGOP) Gina Swoboda joined Thursday’s edition of The Afternoon Addiction with Garret Lewis on KFYI to discuss her experience as an election official and how her extensive knowledge of election laws will benefit her in her new position as chair.

“One of the issues I think we have had historically is that there has not been a process expert, a subject matter expert, that works with the attorneys to explain to them, ‘this is what should be happening, this is not what’s happening, flag on the court.’ The election attorneys are great, but they are election attorneys, not election administrators,” Swoboda explained. “I’m a certified election official and I’ve helped administer elections…so I know what’s supposed to be happening, I know when things are not supposed to be happening, or when we should be doing things that we are not doing.”

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