Election Integrity Group Finds Laws Were Broken in Maricopa County’s 2020 Election, Including 200,000 Mismatched Signatures

Counting Ballots

We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA) has been investigating voting irregularities in Maricopa County in recent elections, and issued a video earlier this month going over problems with the signature verification on ballot affidavits from the botched 2020 election. WPAA found that out of 1.9 million ballots, 10 percent or about 200,000 had “egregiously” mismatched signatures, and another 10 percent had poorly matched signatures that violated the state’s guidelines for acceptance.

https://x.com/AzPinkLady/status/1909699811378442642

Attorney Bryan Blehm, a member of WPAA who previously represented Kari Lake in her election challenges, said during the presentation that then-Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer didn’t do anything to stop signature reviewers from clicking “approved” on every signature verification screen as fast as a new screen came up. He noted that 20,000 ballots were accepted that came in after the election was over, which violated the law. 

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Election Integrity Group Discovers Maricopa County Signature Verification in 2024 Occurred at ‘World Book Record’ Speed

The election integrity organization We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA), which discovered in 2022 that Maricopa County ballot affidavit reviewers were verifying signatures at speeds of up to one signature per second, revealed in a new video this week that reviewers during the 2024 election also verified signatures at a similarly rapid pace.

The group alleged that AI was used, especially in the 2020 election, which the county had previously denied, despite it being mentioned in contracts.

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Public Records Reveal Extent of Previous Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer’s Collusion with County Supervisors on Elections Power Grab

Stephen Richer

Two grassroots organizations in Arizona that investigate election corruption examined recent public records from the Maricopa County Recorder and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBOS) in an attempt to get to the bottom of a Shared Services Agreement (SSA) the previous recorder Stephen Richer made with the MCBOS in October turning over control of much of his office to them. The new recorder, conservative Justin Heap, demanded control of his office back, pointing out that the agreement was made at the last minute at the end of the year with lame-duck supervisors. However, one of two remaining supervisors on the board, Thomas Galvin, who is the chair, refuses to relinquish control. 

Merissa Hamilton, co-founder of EZAZ, asked the other four supervisors on X to challenge Galvin, “I urge @KateMcGeeAZ @DebbieLesko @MarkStewart_AZ @Steve_Gallardo to take back control of the Board and direct the County Manager to stop the chaos in election administration!”

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Maricopa County Recorder Attempted to Have Conservative ASU Professor Fired over Social Media Posts, Lawsuit Claims

Aaron Ludwig

We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA), represented by Kari Lake’s former attorney Bryan Blehm, filed a lawsuit last week against outgoing Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer demanding records related to Richer allegedly attempting to get a conservative Arizona State University professor fired and disciplined by the State Bar of Arizona. WPAA requested an email between Richer and States United Democracy Center (SUDC), concerned that the far left activist group was aiding Richer in his attempt to get Aaron Ludwig fired.

The complaint asserted, “On July 31, 2022, Defendant Richer, acting as Maricopa County Recorder, sent an email to the Directors of ASU’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice seeking to have a faculty associate terminated from ASU for sharing a Tweet. … Defendant’s email also shows that the Recorder, in his capacity as Maricopa County Recorder, intended to seek sanctions against the faculty member through the State Bar of Arizona as the faculty member was also an attorney licensed to practice law in Arizona.” 

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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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New Documentary ‘State of Denial’ Goes Over Election Illegalities in Maricopa County’s 2022 Election, Reveals ‘Intentional Conduct to Sabotage the Election’

State of Denial Arizona

A new documentary released on Wednesday, reveals the full extent of the chaos on Election Day last fall in Maricopa County due to voters unable to feed their ballots into the machines for tabulation. Speropictures released “State of Denial” in a viewing hosted by We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA) at Pollack Cinemas in Tempe, which is now available free online. The documentary interviewed the key people involved with figuring out how the problem arose, and why nothing happened in the courts to rectify it.

WPAA, which is working with the Kari Lake campaign, posted the documentary on X, along with the statement, “The movie of what the government knows, but will never admit. Kari faces defamation charges for telling the truth, while Scott Jarrett, Stephen Richer and Bill Gates continue to gaslight and lie to the public.”

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‘Far-Left’ Maricopa County Judge ‘Predictably’ Refuses to Allow Kari Lake to Inspect Ballot Affidavit Envelopes

Judge John Hannah

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah issued a ruling Wednesday denying Kari Lake’s special action that requested to inspect the ballot affidavit envelopes, or the electronic images of those envelopes, from Maricopa County’s 2022 general election. The recorder’s office denied Lake’s initial public records request for the affidavits because they contained voters’ signatures, so she sued the county. During the September trial, Hannah refused to allow most of Lake’s witnesses to testify or her exhibits into evidence.

Shelby Busch, the co-founder of We the People AZ Alliance, which has been investigating illegal election activities for the Lake campaign, told The Arizona Sun Times, “Judge Hannah’s decision was predictably bad. Denying Kari the ability to put forward witnesses, testimony or even a rebuttal to the County is further evidence that he is a far-left Judge trying to legislate from the bench. This is the people’s election and denying them the right to inspect public records is further confirmation that protecting the corrupt institution is their primary goal. Journalists everywhere should be outraged, this is a huge miscarriage to public transparency and accountability, but how many of them will step up?”

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State Senate Election Committee Chair Wendy Rogers Demands Election Logs from 2022 Election in Pinal County

Concerned about allegations of wrongdoing and voter disenfranchisement in Pinal County’s 2022 election, State Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff), chair of the Senate Election Committee, sent the county a public records request demanding printout logs from the election. She asked for the EL52S, EL30A, and EL45A reports/logs. 

“Given the importance of free, fair, and transparent elections and the public’s skepticism regarding the conduct of recent elections, I am seeking production of these documents on an expedited basis.” She gave the county a deadline of 10 days to produce the documents, warning, “Any deletion of said public documents can give rise to a negative inference in a court of law.”

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Independent Audit by Arizona Election Integrity Group Says Hundreds of Provisional Ballots from Republicans Remain Uncounted: ‘Abe Hamadeh Won the Attorney General’s Race’

We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA), a leading election integrity group in Arizona, has been looking into ballots that were not counted in Arizona’s 2022 election. Co-founder Shelby Busch issued a video last week revealing that the group found hundreds of instances involving people who said they voted for Abe Hamadeh but their ballots were not counted, more than the 280 votes he lost the attorney general’s race by. However, Busch told The Arizona Sun Times that the courts refuse to consider the new evidence.

Busch said in the video, “Abe Hamadeh won the attorney general’s race. I’m going to outline for you the evidence behind how Kris Mayes was installed as the illegitimate attorney general. … Our evidence in Abe’s case shows that thousands of Arizona voters were disenfranchised on Election Day in violation of the 1993 National Voter Registration Act, and Katie Hobbs, the secretary of state and the counties know about these voters and have done nothing to correct it.”

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Arizona Judge Rules Election Vendor Runbeck Not Subject to Public Records Law, Ignores Precedent Set in Cyber Ninjas Case

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Bradley Astrowsky issued a ruling Friday dismissing a complaint filed by We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA) that requested video surveillance from Runbeck Election Services. Although another judge ruled previously that the private company Cyber Ninjas was subject to public records requests due to conducting a partial audit for the Arizona Senate of the 2020 election, Astrowsky refused to apply the same reasoning to Runbeck, the vendor that processed all of Maricopa County’s mail-in ballots prior to signature verification.

The judge, appointed by Gov. Jan Brewer in 2012, has served on the bench for a little more than a decade. A court insider familiar with Judge Astrowsky’s decisions told The Arizona Sun Times he is well-known as a moderate in legal circles.

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Former Maricopa County Elections Worker: Many Houses Had Exactly 25 Voters Registered, Other Anomalies

A grassroots activist concerned about election fraud worked for Maricopa County Elections Department in signature verification for five weeks prior to the 2020 election. After she was fired, for what she believed was asking too many questions, she continued to look into anomalies, such as signatures accepted on mail-in ballot affidavits that did not match the voters’ signatures on their voter registrations. The activist, who does not want to be identified for fear of retaliation, canvassed at some of the homes with mismatching signatures after the election looking for votes for Donald Trump to cure, and discovered that many of them — which were generally smallish houses in heavily Democratic areas — had exactly 25 people registered to vote at each one.

Shelby Busch, co-founder of We the People AZ Alliance, which has worked uncovering evidence of wrongdoing in the 2020 and 2022 elections, told The Arizona Sun Times, “Unfortunately, these stories are not isolated occurrences. We received similar reports all across the state of Arizona.” Busch explained how her team found while preparing for Abe Hamadeh’s election lawsuit, “thousands of voters across the state who were disenfranchised from voting, many of whom never even knew their vote didn’t count. This includes people who showed up to vote and a ballot had already been received, people whose voter registrations were altered without their knowledge or consent and registered voters who didn’t even appear in the registration records,” she said.

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We the People AZ’s Lawsuit Against Runbeck for Video Surveillance Compares Runbeck to Cyber Ninjas Being Held Subject to Public Records Requests

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Brad Astrowsky conducted a hearing Wednesday regarding Maricopa County and Runbeck Election Systems’ motions to dismiss a lawsuit filed by We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA). WPAA requested video surveillance from Runbeck showing ballots being transferred to and from Runbeck on Election Day and the day after the 2022 general election. Runbeck refused to turn them over, claiming it was not subject to public records requests as a private entity, so WPAA sued the company.

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Ballot Signature Matching System in Maricopa County Is ‘Almost Illegal,’ Says Longtime FBI Expert

As Kari Lake’s lawsuit returns to the trial court for consideration of alleged violations of Maricopa County’s signature verification rules in the Arizona 2022 general election, a retired FBI counterintelligence agent with longtime expertise in signature analysis says that matching ballot signatures with little time to review is “almost illegal.”

If election workers have a limited amount of time to review signatures on early ballots to ensure they match with voters’ files, it’s “almost illegal to have it work that way,” said retired FBI Special Agent Wayne A. Barnes, adding, “almost pathetic.”

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We the People AZ Alliance Sues Maricopa County for Failing to Provide Ballot Envelopes for Public Records Request

We the People AZ Alliance (WPAA) filed a lawsuit against Maricopa County on April 25 for refusing to fulfill their public records request for ballot envelopes containing signatures from the 2022 election. The Verified Complaint for Statutory Special Action to Secure Access to Public Records From Defendants stated that the public records request was submitted on April 5 and denied by the county on April 10. 

WPAA tweeted about the rejection on Wednesday, “A.R.S. 16-168(F) is not a catch to hide information from the public. Signatures are filed on deeds, court documents and licenses and made public. Ballot affidavit envelopes are not by design part of a voter record, we are committed to bringing the truth to light.”

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We the People AZ Alliance Says No to Stephen Richer’s Elections Improvement Plan

Shelby Busch, chairman of the We the People AZ Alliance (WTPAZ), released a statement Tuesday, picking apart and rejecting a proposal introduced by Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, which presented ideas on improving elections in Arizona.

“I encourage Maricopa County voters to immediately reject this plan and tell Mr. Richer that we deserve secure elections not convenient elections,” said Busch.

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Investigation Finds, Names the Maricopa County Elections Employee on Video Removing 2020 Election Files from Servers

The Arizona Senate-ordered independent Maricopa County ballot audit of the 2020 presidential election revealed questionable findings, including a Maricopa County Elections Department (MCED) employee captured on video deleting, or what officials stated later was merely archiving, hundreds of thousands of files from an election server the day before the server was to be turned over to the audit. Last weekend, investigative journalist Lara Logan and cyber expert Matt Van Bibber stated at an election security forum hosted by We the People AZ Alliance that the employee has been identified, along with a couple of his co-workers who allowed him access into the election server room.

Van Bibber, who discovered the information through viewing videos and matching what he saw against server room logs, said the employee was Brian Ramirez, a database administrator at MCED. Van Bibber said Ramirez did not have the required credentials to enter the server room where the computer was, so two other employees gave him access with their card keys. One was Kristi Passarelli, assistant elections director, and the other was an employee named Charles Cooley, who appears to be an Administrative/Operations Specialist.

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