Former President Donald Trump on Friday raised concerns over absentee ballots in Arizona’s 2020 election and urged action to strengthen the integrity of the process.
Pointing to new accusations from Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai, Trump questioned the number of absentee ballots returned in Pima County.
Ayyadurai, who wrote the portion of the Maricopa County ballot audit addressing the signatures on the return envelopes of mail-in ballots, alleged multiple precincts had high return percentages.
“Turnout rates of 99% and 100% is what you get in a Third World Country, and that’s what we’re becoming (look at crime, the Border, Afghanistan, food prices, energy prices, and the empty store shelves, etc.), unless this is fixed immediately!” Trump said in a statement.
Trump also pointed to the results of the audit of 2.1 million ballots in Maricopa County.
“In addition, the Arizona Audit found tens of thousands of illegal votes, including 6,545 mail-in ballots with no envelopes, 2,580 bad signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes, and 1,919 mail-in ballot envelopes with no signature, which is also determinative and more than the margin,” Trump continued.
In response to the allegations, Attorney General Mark Brnovich pledged to investigate the claims.
“The Arizona Senate’s report that was released on Friday raises some serious questions regarding the 2020 election,” Brnovich said in a statement about the letters. “Arizonans can be assured our office will conduct a thorough review of the information we receive.”
Because of the concern of mail-in ballot security, the Arizona state legislature passed SB 1485, which removes voters who have not participated in Arizona’s last four elections from its permanent early voting list. Therefore, these inactive voters will not automatically receive a ballot.
“In 1992, our state began offering the ability for Arizonans to vote an absentee ballot. Since then, Arizona has continuously improved and refined our election laws — including intuitively renaming ‘absentee’ voting to ‘early’ voting — and constantly seeking to strengthen the security and integrity of our elections,” Governor Ducey said at the time.
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for The Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
