Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has published an interim report he sent to AZ Senate President Karen Fann with the findings from the Maricopa County forensic election audit for the November 2020 election, and in his report, he’s calling for criminal prosecutions.
In his letter to Senator Fann, AG Brnovich writes: “Six months ago, the Arizona Attorney General’s Office received reports sent from the Arizona State Senate concerning its Maricopa County Forensic Election Audit. In addition, the Attorney General’s Election Integrity Unit (EIU) has received and is reviewing additional complaints alleging election failures and potential misconduct that occurred in 2020.
“Our team of EIU investigators and attorneys has now collectively spent thousands of hours reviewing the Senate’s audit reports and other complaints, conducting interviews, and analyzing Maricopa County’s election system and processes,” Brnovich explained. He states that they have concluded that there were “serious vulnerabilities” that “must be addressed” in Maricopa County.
In his letter to Sen. Fann, Arizona’s chief law enforcement officer, AG Brnovich officer revealed that the EIU has found individuals that committed voter fraud, saying “they have been or will be prosecuted” for “various election crimes.” Because the investigation is ongoing, Brnovich cannot disclose the specific criminal and civil investigations.
Here is a small portion of the report that talks about the broken signature verification process. In Maricopa Co, there were 206,648 early ballot affidavit signatures (an ave. of 4.6 seconds per signature), leaving the system vulnerable to error fraud and oversight issues.
Given the issues the EIU faced in obtaining election records in a timely matter, the report is recommending that laws be changed to allow immediate production of election records when requested by the AZ attorney general.
The report recommends that the law be amended to include individuals who vote early and provide an ID when voting. They are also asking for more specific requirements for signature verification.
The report also found serious issues with the transportation of ballots from dropbox locations to election headquarters. The report estimates between 100,000 and 200,000 ballots were transported without a proper chain of custody. Additionally, the report claims no election protection measures exist for the chain of custody in the upcoming 2022 elections.
Liz Harrington tweeted about the lack of chain of custody for 100K – 200K ballots in Arizona where Trump lost the state by only 10,457 votes in 2020.