Tag: Election Integrity

Stephen Richer, Who Sued Kari Lake for Defamation over Election Fraud Allegations, Brought up Similar Concerns Previously

Rachel Alexander

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer sued Kari Lake for defamation on June 22 over her statements alleging election fraud, but Merissa Hamilton, founder of EZAZ who is managing an effort to chase early ballots for Lake, pointed out that Richer has made similar allegations himself previously. The Maricopa County Recorder’s lawsuit is being paid for by the Protect Democracy Project, which is described by InfluenceWatch as “a left-of-center litigation organization created to oppose the policies of President Donald Trump.”

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First Week of Disbarment Trial of Trump Attorney John Eastman by Judge Who Contributes to Democrats Concludes

Rachel Alexander

The first week of the disbarment hearing of Trump attorney John Eastman concluded on Friday, with State Bar of California (SBC) attorneys putting Eastman on the witness stand again along with Nevada Deputy Secretary of State for Elections Mark Waschin. The SBC continued to try and show that Eastman provided bad advice to President Donald Trump by telling him that one option for handling election fraud in the 2020 election would be to have Vice President Mike Pence reject certification of electoral votes from the disputed states.

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Kari Lake’s Attorney Continues to Point Out Flaws in Maricopa County’s Elections

Rachel Alexander

Kari Lake’s appeal of the trial court judge’s ruling against her after two trials is pending at the Arizona Court of Appeals, and her attorney Bryan Blehm has taken to Twitter to continue providing updates as more information comes in about Maricopa County’s election problems. Blehm represented the Cyber Ninjas in cases related to its audit of Arizona’s problematic 2020 presidential election. He previously served as pro tem judge for Maricopa County.

On Wednesday, Blehm tweeted, “Did Maricopa County intentionally misrepresent user 134-speed clicker when they argued to the Court that he was reassigned from level-1 signature verification?” He included a tweet from We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA), which has been helping the Lake team investigate the 2022 the election. “One of many lies told by County Attorney Liddy during the @KariLakeWarRoom @KariLake trial,” WPAA said. “Rey exercises great Kamala word salad.”

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Arizona Bill Allowing Easier Access to Cast Vote Record Would Create Loophole Allowing Unverified Ballots, Election Experts Say

Rachel Alexander

A bill that has been making its way through the Arizona Legislature would make it easier for the public to obtain the Cast Vote Record (CVR), which is the electronic representation of how voters voted, but some election integrity proponents are concerned that after an amendment by State Representative Alex Kolodin (R-Scottsdale) was removed in Conference Committee, a loophole allows counties to accept early ballots without verifying the signatures. SB 1518, sponsored by State Senator Ken Bennett (R-Prescott), passed the Senate 17-11 on Tuesday, with a handful of conservative stalwarts joining Democrats to oppose it, but failed in the House 24-32 due to opposition from the House’s Arizona Freedom Caucus. 

Jennifer Wright, former Election Integrity Unit civil attorney under previous Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is currently representing Abe Hamadeh in his election challenge for Attorney General, tweeted her praise at the legislators who voted against the bill. “Thank you @RJ4arizona, @realAlexKolodin, and others for stopping SB1518 that contained language codifying procedures revealed in @KariLake’s trial that Maricopa used to permit ballots from early vote centers to forgo signature verification,” she said. 

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Maricopa County GOP Censures Attorney for Requesting Sanctions Against Kari Lake

Rachel Alexander

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell, a Republican, is in hot water with Republicans after representing the Maricopa County Supervisors (MCBOS) twice asking for sanctions against Kari Lake over her election lawsuits. A judge derisively dismissed the second request a couple of weeks ago, prompting the Maricopa County Republican Committee (MCRC) to censure Mitchell on June 6. 

Brian Ference, member at large with the MCRC and behind many of the group’s recent censures, told The Arizona Sun Times, “The recent censures show an unprecedented level of unity of Republicans holding their elected officials accountable. Just like with Rusty Bowers, the critical part is to take them as a call to action to door knock and inform the voters and then primary them.”

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Mark Finchem Slams ‘Two Tier Justice System,’ Advocates Removing Judges After Sanctions Granted Against Him for Election Challenge

Rachel Alexander

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Iyer Julian awarded sanctions on May 26 against Mark Finchem and his attorney over Finchem’s lawsuit challenging his election loss in the Arizona Secretary of State’s race to Democrat Adrian Fontes.

Finchem issued a response from his Substack. Titled “Yes, We Have a Two Tier Legal System.” In this piece, he advocated removing “judges who act outside of the law.”

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Counties Switching to Hand Counting Ballots as Election Integrity Advocate Provides Model

Just the News

Counties across the U.S. are switching to hand-counting election ballots instead of using electronic tabulation machines over concerns about the accuracy and security of the devices.

At the forefront of the transition is election integrity advocate Linda Rantz, who says her model, now being used in a Missouri county, is less expensive than critics continue to say it is.

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Georgia GOP Convention Replaces Mike Pence with Kari Lake

Rachel Alexander

Kari Lake will be the keynote speaker at the Georgia Republican Party’s annual convention, replacing Mike Pence who was originally scheduled. Former President Donald Trump will also be speaking at the convention. The state party Chair David Shafer sent an email to delegates stating that Pence canceled “because of a televised national town hall at which he will be making an announcement regarding his future plans.”

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Hundreds Show Up for Kari Lake Rally with Former ICE Director Tom Homan Addressing Border Security

Rachel Alexander

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona – Hundreds showed up for a rally in Scottsdale with Kari Lake and former acting ICE Director Tom Homan Wednesday evening. The event focused on the problems related to Arizona’s border with Mexico, the surge in illegal immigrants under the Biden administration, the increase in crime, including rapes and sexual assaults, and the fentanyl crisis.

Lake began her speech, “What happens on the border, doesn’t stay on the border. It goes to all 50 states. This isn’t Vegas.”

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Voter Data-Sharing System Issues Dominate Schmidt’s Pennsylvania Senate Confirmation Hearing

Bradley Vasoli

At Acting Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt’s initial confirmation hearing on Wednesday, many senators inquired about the commonwealth’s participation in a controversial voter data-sharing program. 

Schmidt, a moderate Republican former Philadelphia city commissioner who subsequently was president of the left-leaning nonprofit Committee of Seventy, will sit for a second hearing covering non-electoral issues his department oversees (e.g., professional licensure). But Senate State Government Committee Chair Cris Dush (R-Bellefonte) suggested discussion of Pennsylvania’s participation in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) will come up then as well. 

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Kari Lake Announces Intent to Appeal Superior Court Ruling, New ‘Chase the Ballot’ Effort

Rachel Alexander

A day after Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson ruled against Kari Lake on her second election challenge trial, Lake held a press conference outlining her future plans. She said she is looking at “several paths for appeal” and is also launching a new “chase the ballot” group headed up by EZAZ grassroots organizer Merissa Hamilton. During the event, Lake, who is known for getting the best of reporters due to her skilled background as a news anchor, tangled repeatedly with the local mainstream media.

Lake denounced the election fraud and the disappointing court rulings against her. “They know they’re frauds,” she declared. “They absolutely know they’re frauds.”

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Judge in Kari Lake’s Second Election Contest Trial Again Dismisses Her Case

Rachel Alexander

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson has dismissed Kari Lake’s election contest a second time. His first dismissal was reversed by the Arizona Supreme Court in March, and he was ordered to reconsider the signature verification issue. Thompson issued an opinion merely six pages long on Monday, just one business day after the trial ended Friday afternoon.

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Kari Lake’s Second Election Contest Trial Concludes, No Experts Dispute 274,000 Ballot Signatures Were ‘Verified’ at a Rate of 3 Seconds Each

Rachel Alexander

Kari Lake’s second trial challenging her gubernatorial loss concluded on Friday, with Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Thompson giving no indication when he would issue his ruling.

In March, the Arizona Supreme Court reversed part of Thompson’s original decision dismissing her case, remanding the signature verification issue back to him for reconsideration. The trial has focused on the speed that signature reviewers examined signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes, which Lake’s team did not believe was physically possible.

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Expert Testifies During Second Day of Kari Lake’s Election Contest That 3-Second Signature Verification Was Impossible

Rachel Alexander

The second of three days scheduled for Kari Lake’s second election contest trial, which focused only on signature verification problems, wrapped up on Thursday, with Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson declining to grant the defendant’s motion for a directed verdict. Witness testimony focused on the speed that signature reviewers went over voters’ signatures on mail-in ballots, with many reviewers taking less than two seconds to compare signatures to see if they matched.

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Day One of Kari Lake’s Second Election Trial Features Testimony That Voters’ Signatures Were Approved Too Fast to be Verified

Rachel Alexander

After being ordered by the Arizona Supreme Court to reconsider the issue of signature verification in Kari Lake’s election contest, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson decided after a hearing that he would allow a full trial. He declined to allow reconsideration of the faulty ballot-on-demand printer configurations, however, which resulted in mostly Republicans having problems casting ballots on Election Day. The trial began on Wednesday, with Lake’s attorneys emphasizing how the signature verification of voters’ signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes was conducted so quickly it was impossible to adequately verify them.

Lake’s attorney Kurt Olsen accused the county of falsely verifying signatures. “Maricopa’s log file data shows that 11 of these signature verification workers approved 170,000 signatures at a rate of between 0 and 2.99 seconds with a 99.97 percent approval rating,” he said. “That’s not signature review, your Honor.” Olsen said due to this, at least 334,000 mail-in ballots were not verified.

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Pennsylvania State Senators Propose Withdrawal from Multi-State Voter-Data System

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania State Senators Cris Dush (R-Bellefonte) and Jarrett Coleman (R-Allentown) are preparing legislation to withdraw the commonwealth from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). 

Over two dozen states and the District of Columbia participate in the election data-sharing system which they use to identify errors in their voter rolls. But seven states — Alabama, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Louisiana, Missouri and West Virginia — recently cancelled their membership in the program. 

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News Reports Debunked That Former Cochise County Elections Official Received Death Threat

Rachel Alexander
Lisa Marra

The media is hyping up complaints by election officials that they are receiving threats for refusing to address complaints about voter disenfranchisement. Arizona Public Media reported in March that controversial former Cochise County Elections Director Lisa Marra received a death threat several weeks before the 2022 election, but an investigation by the Arizona Daily Independent found that Arizona Media incorrectly assumed it was Marra.

The news went national, as Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD-08) used Marra as a source for discussing those types of threats. Arizona Media quoted Marra telling him, “I believe that we should have some defined laws, we should have some penalties, we should have some things with teeth. It concerns me that the longer that we go on, the angrier people are getting, and at some point, there’s a tipping point.”

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Wisconsin Legislative Budget Committee Axes Controversial Plan for Office of Election Transparency and Compliance

M.D. Kittle

The Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee this week rejected a plan by the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC) to create a $2 million Office of Election Transparency and Compliance. 

While the proposed bureaucracy’s name suggests election integrity, it would be built by WEC Administrator Meagan Wolfe, the same bureaucrat who has presided over an agency riddled with election integrity complaints and election law violations. 

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Pennsylvania Leadership Conference Poll: Election Integrity Conservatives’ Foremost Concern

Bradley Vasoli

At the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference this weekend, a straw poll of right-leaning activists from across the Keystone State found election integrity tops their public concerns. 

Cybersecurity Association of Pennsylvania President Scott R. Davis, who administered the survey, told attendees at the Penn Harris Hotel west of Harrisburg that 38 percent of those who voted called election integrity the foremost issue facing the state General Assembly. Trailing that topic were the state budget (28 percent) and gun laws (six percent). Eleven percent chose another issue. 

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Pennsylvania’s Improved Voter Registry ‘Behind Schedule’

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania’s top election officials this week informed lawmakers that the process of replacing the state’s voter-records system is “behind schedule” but assured them his agency is prioritizing its completion. 

Responding to questions from members of the state House Appropriations Committee in preparation for drafting the Fiscal Year 2023-24 budget, Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of State Al Schmidt said 23 counties are testing the initial version of the new SUREVote system.

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Arizona State Senate Passes More Election Integrity Bills Relating to Primaries and Ballot Images

Neil Jones

The Arizona State Senate passed more legislation Tuesday aimed at strengthening Arizona’s elections, starting with House Concurrent Resolution (HCR) 2033, sponsored by State Representative Austin Smith (R-Suprise).

“Thank you to the @AZSenateGOP for voting out HCR2033. A bigger thank you to all the grassroots activists who worked so hard to make this happen. Very grateful for you all,” Smith tweeted. “This constitutional referral to protect our party primaries and girding us against radical experimental election systems that disenfranchise voters such as ‘ranked choice voting.'”

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Kari Lake Responds to Arizona Supreme Court’s Decision Remanding Part and Rejecting Part of Her Appeal

Rachel Alexander

After deliberating on whether to accept Kari Lake’s appeal of the dismissal of her election challenge in Arizona’s gubernatorial race, the Arizona Supreme Court issued an order on Wednesday that remanded the part of the case regarding Maricopa County’s signature verification process back to the trial court judge, and dismissed the other parts.

Lake issued a statement after the ruling. “I am thrilled that the Supreme Court has agreed to give our signature verification evidence the appropriate forum for the evaluation it deserves.” She said, “The violation of procedure allowed for tens of thousands of illegal ballots to be approved and counted. Aside from all other issues, including nearly 60% of polling locations being inoperable on Election Day, this issue alone casts the veracity of Katie Hobbs’ victory in serious doubt.”

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Conservative Duo Vies for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Commission

Bradley Vasoli

As recently as the mid-2000s, row offices were unwinnable for Democrats in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania — a GOP stronghold for over a century. By 2011, the Democrats would take over the Board of Commissioners. They now enjoy a three-to-two voter-registration advantage.

But now some Republicans sense voters are wearying of what the Democrats have overseen during their dozen-year ascendancy, including a “bail reform” measure that has unsettled local police. The commissioners also frequently increase property taxes, most recently by eight percent in 2022. 

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Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes Sues Cochise County for Assigning Election Duties to Recorder Like Maricopa County Did for Years

Rachel Alexander

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the Cochise County Supervisors for delegating election duties to Cochise County Recorder David Stevens, an election integrity proponent. However, from the 1950s to 2019, Maricopa County had an agreement with its county recorder to oversee elections. Three other counties delegate those responsibilities to their recorders as well. 

Jennifer Wright, who served as the Election Integrity Unit’s civil attorney under previous Attorney General Mark Brnovich, tweeted, “So, will @krismayes also be suing @maricopacounty for their MOU delegating BOS responsibilities to the CR? Anyone remember when Fontes was stripped of BOS delegated responsibilities, the press lamented how elections were 100% the CR’s job? Oh, the hypocrisy. #AbuseOfPower”

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Mark Finchem Responds to Sanctions for Bringing Election Challenge over Voter Disenfranchisement in His Race

Rachel Alexander

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Melissa Julian awarded sanctions last week against Mark Finchem and his attorney Tom McCauley over Finchem’s lawsuit challenging his election loss in the secretary of state’s race. Democrat Adrian Fontes, who won the race, asked the court for sanctions in December. Finchem and McCauley will be required to pay attorneys fees; the legal costs of Fontes’ and then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ office defending against the lawsuit. 

Finchem issued a statement after the ruling. “The 6-page order by Judge Julian to award lawyer reimbursement to leftist litigators who represent the Sinaloa Cartel, now the installed Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, and Katie Hobbs, the installed Governor of Arizona, is contemptible judicial overreach beyond all statutory and Rules of Civil Procedure for the Superior Courts of Arizona,” he said. “This award is designed to quash any and all dissent where elections are in question. The Maricopa County 2022 election was the most embarrassing election in American history. As a result, 70% of Americans doubt the outcome of the 2022 elections in Arizona (Rasmussen Poll).” 

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Two Bills Making Progress That Would Dismantle the Mandatory State Bar of Arizona

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Legislature is considering two bills to dismantle the State Bar of Arizona. 

Senate Bill (SB) 1435, sponsored by State Representative Justine Wadsack (R-Tucson) and passed the Senate 16-13 on February 27, would make the Bar voluntary and move the licensing and regulation of attorneys back under the Arizona Supreme Court. Currently, lawyers cannot practice law in Arizona unless they are a member of the Bar. While Arizona is a right-to-work state, lawsuits attempting to stop it from acting like a mandatory union have failed due to judges ruling against them. More than half of the states have mandatory bars; the rest are voluntary.

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Explosive Testimony at Senate Elections and House Municipal Oversight & Elections Joint Meeting Accuses Hobbs, Fontes, Runbeck, and Judges of Racketeering

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Legislature’s Senate Elections Committee and House Municipal Oversight & Elections Committee held a joint hearing on Thursday featuring testimony from several people involved in researching the voter disenfranchisement that occurred in 2020 and 2022. The testimony by Arizona forensic investigator Jacqueline Breger accused multiple statewide and county officials, including Governor Katie Hobbs and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, of racketeering connected to the Sinaloa Cartel. Democrats on those committees refused to attend the hearing.

Breger said she has been working with a law firm investigating multistate racketeering and corruption, but in the process discovered election fraud as well. She said neither she nor the attorney she works for are very political; he didn’t vote in the last two elections and she is a registered independent. While investigating racketeering involving the Sinaloa Cartel, their team accidentally discovered election fraud, she said, including finding that Maricopa County’s database is being infiltrated from the outside. “The Maricopa County database has absolutely no integrity whatsoever,” she declared. “Racketeering enterprises are inextricably intertwined with election fraud.”

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Arizona State Representative Celebrates Bipartisan Passage of Voter Signature Verification Bill

Neil Jones

The Arizona House of Representatives passed a new house bill (HB) Wednesday clarifying the early ballot envelope voter signature verification standards. This bill came from State Representative Alexander Kolodin (R-Scottsdale), who celebrated the bill passing with bipartisan support.

“This goes to show that when you offer reasonable and necessary solutions to problems, you can reach consensus on real solutions for the people of Arizona. We Republicans are willing to do that and yesterday, we found out that there are some Democrats that are willing to do that as well,” Kolodin said.

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Kari Lake Denounces Maricopa County Leadership’s ‘Inappropriate’ Comments After Court Dismisses Case

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Court of Appeals dismissed Kari Lake’s appeal of her election lawsuit on Thursday, stating that voters were not disenfranchised. Lake said she intends to appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court, as her opponents and Maricopa County officials praised the dismissal. Maricopa County election officials have frequently criticized Lake, causing some to doubt their impartiality. The Maricopa County Supervisors are responsible for overseeing elections on Election Day, while Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer has oversight of early balloting.

Clint Hickman, chair of the Maricopa County Supervisors, issued a statement on Thursday referring to Lake’s legal arguments as “questionable mathematics.” He said, “When a candidate for office asks a court to throw out valid votes, you have to wonder how committed to election integrity they really are.” He said Lake has been rejected “at the polls, when Arizona voters rejected her bid to be governor…”

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Ohio Republicans Introduce Bill Codifying Election Integrity Office

Bradley Vasoli

Republicans in the Ohio Legislature are working to pass a law codifying the election-integrity office whose creation Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) announced last year. 

LaRose declared last October he would set up the Public Integrity Division in his office to improve the security, accuracy and accessibility of elections in the Buckeye State. The new department consolidates heretofore separate divisions dealing with campaign-finance administration, voter registration, election investigations and cybersecurity.

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Senator Grassley: A ‘Triad’ of Media, FBI, and Democrats Tried to Thwart Investigation into the Biden Family’s Corrupt Business Dealings

Admin

In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee’s first hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) detailed how a “triad” of partisan media, FBI, and Democrats used disinformation from a Russian agent to smear their investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.

In addition to Grassley, the committee on Thursday heard from Senator Ron Johnson (R- Wis.), Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, former FBI agent Thomas Baker, Professor Jonathan Turley, and former FBI agent Nicole Parker.

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Pennsylvania Representative Proposes Election-Audit Reforms

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania state Representative Dawn Keefer (R-Dillsburg) is asking the state General Assembly to support legislation she is drafting to require periodical audits of the commonwealth’s election registry.

The representative observed that an investigation by Democratic Auditor General Eugene DePasquale that concluded in December 2019 discovered numerous problems with the accuracy of Pennsylvania’s voter records. DePasquale’s report determined, for example, that 24,408 registrations with the same driver’s license number appeared on other registrations. It also found that 2,991 active voter records contained information matching that displayed on Department of Health death notices. 

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Review of 2020 Election Continues as Texas, Pennsylvania Counties Find Ballot Total Discrepancies

Just the News

An audit of the 2020 election found a discrepancy of nearly 600 absentee votes in a Texas county, while a hand recount in a Pennsylvania county found a far smaller disparity, as more states seek to implement election reviews.

In Smith County, Texas, an audit of the 2020 election showed 584 more absentee voters than absentee ballots, according to KLTV, a local ABC News affiliate. Seven county races were within the 584-vote margin of error, including council races and propositional elections. The audit also found five different totals for absentee ballots.

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Arizona Governor Candidate Kari Lake Tells Iowa Republicans to Demand Presidential Candidates Put America and Election Integrity First

M.D. Kittle

Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake made her second stop in her two-day trip to Iowa with a message to conservatives in the kick-off caucus state: Back candidates who put America and election integrity first. 

“First of all, you know who I’m supporting for president,” Lake told some 250 people at a standing-room-only rally at the District Venue in Ankeny, Des Moines’ largest suburb. 

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Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes Discuss Adding More Ballot Drop Boxes

Rachel Alexander

Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, whose victory is being challenged by Republican candidate Mark Finchem, hosted a panel discussion with election fraud denier Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer this week.

ABC-15 Data Analyst Garrett Archer moderated the event at the Valley Bar in Phoenix, the bipartisan pair discussed the 2022 midterm election.

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Former State Legislator Paul Boyer Announces Candidacy for Glendale Mayor

Rachel Alexander

Former Arizona state legislator Paul Boyer announced this week that he is running for mayor of Glendale. The current mayor, Republican Jerry Weiers, assumed that office in 2013 after serving eight years in the Arizona House.

Boyer submitted an op-ed to the Daily Independent on Monday explaining his decision. He criticized the legislature for attempting to pass laws that would stop cities and towns from taking certain actions.

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Simon Conway Guest Host Matt Kittle Talks to Kari Lake About Upcoming Event in Iowa and America First Policies

Julie Carr

Live from Des Moines Tuesday morning on The Simon Conway Show with Matt Kittle – broadcast on Des Moines, Iowa’s, 1040 WHO (4p-7p weekdays) or in the Quad Cities on 1420 WOC (4p-6m weekdays) – host Kittle welcomed former Arizona Governor candidate Kari Lake to the show to promote her upcoming event in Iowa and America First policies.

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Drop-Box Elimination Proposed in Pennsylvania

Bradley Vasoli

A Pennsylvania state senator this week announced he will soon reintroduce legislation he proposed last session to end use of election drop boxes and satellite offices. 

In a memorandum asking colleagues to cosponsor his bill, Senator Cris Dush (R-Bellefonte) characterized drop boxes where voters can deposit absentee ballots as fraught with security problems. Lawmakers never enacted a law authorizing counties to set up the receptacles, but the commonwealth’s Democrat-controlled executive branch issued guidance to counties in 2020 permitting drop boxes’ usage. 

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Michigan County Spurns $1.5 Million in Private Election Funding Amid Growing ‘Zuckerbucks’ Backlash

Just the News

A clerk in Ottawa County, Mich., has declined a $1.5 million election grant from a nonprofit linked to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, citing qualms about accepting private funds for public election administration, as a growing number of states and localities across the nation are moving to refuse, restrict or ban so-called “Zuckerbucks.”

Ottawa County Clerk Justin Roebuck announced Tuesday that he was removing the elections division of his office from consideration for funding by the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, after reporting in November that the county was a finalist in the network’s “Centers for Election Excellence” program.

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Testimony to Arizona Senate Election Committee Reveals Thousands of Misdemeanors Allegedly Committed by Maricopa County in 2022 Election

Rachel Alexander

The Arizona Senate’s Election Committee continued the second part of a hearing on Monday that began last week, featuring testimony from election integrity proponents. Shelby Busch, the co-founder of We the People AZ, and Heather Honey of Verify Vote, went over five areas where their team found apparent law violations by Maricopa County in the 2022 election.

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Kari Lake Files Reply Brief with Arizona Court of Appeals in Election Contest Lawsuit

Rachel Alexander

Kari Lake’s election lawsuit contesting her loss to Democrat Katie Hobbs in the gubernatorial race is at the Arizona Court of Appeals after being dismissed by the trial court judge. Lake filed a reply on Tuesday to the responses from defendants Maricopa County and then-Secretary of State Hobbs.

The reply brief began, “Defendants ignore the trial court’s holdings, misstate the law, misstate material facts, and — unable to get their stories straight — contradict each other.” 

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New Bill from Rep. Rachel Jones Would Bar an Arizona Secretary of State from Certifying Their Own Election

Neil Jones

One of Arizona’s newest Republican State Representatives, Rachel Jones (R-Tucson), introduced a new bill that would prevent a Secretary of State from certifying an election in which they participated.

“So, I think it is pretty clear what the intent of this bill is. It is basically saying if a current Secretary of State is running for another office, such as happened in the 2022 election with Katie Hobbs running for governor, this is just getting rid of any potential conflicts of interests with that individual,” Jones said while introducing her bill to the House Municipal Oversight and Elections Committee.

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Testimony to Arizona Senate Election Committee Reveals Almost Half the Ballots Ran Through Maricopa County Tabulators Failed

Rachel Alexander

The election committee of the Arizona Senate held a hearing on Monday featuring the results of an investigation into Maricopa County’s 2022 midterm election conducted by the election integrity group We the People AZ (WPAZ). Commissioned by outgoing Senate President Karen Fann (R-Prescott), the group submitted public records requests to Maricopa County Elections Department to obtain the data. The leader of WPAZ, Shelby Busch, testified to the committee chaired by State Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff) that 464,926 ballots fed into tabulators on Election Day in Maricopa County, 217,305 were rejected, which is nearly a 50 percent failure rate.

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Kari Lake’s Team Announces ‘More Evidence to Come’ after Arizona Gov. Hobbs Requests Case Dismissal

Just the News

Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake’s team announced Monday that there’s more evidence to come regarding her election lawsuit soon after Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs requested the case be thrown out.

“Yesterday @katiehobbs filed to get our lawsuit thrown out,” the Kari Lake War Room tweeted. “Today, records revealed nearly a quarter of a million ballots were rejected on Election Day in Maricopa County in a race that came down to just 17K votes. She’s illegitimate & she knows it. More evidence to come.”

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