Overview of The Arizona Audit Report:
Will Arizona's State Legislature Recall Electors and Decertify?
If you have not read my Preservation of Election Integrity article, I encourage you to do so.
Introduction:
The Maricopa County forensic audit of the 2020 General Election results began on April 23rd of this year and five months later, we finally have the highly anticipated results from the audit. The initiation of the audit was a result of thousands of concerned citizens in Arizona, demanding to know the truth behind the 2020 General Election. Citizens of Arizona believed fraud occurred in Maricopa County due to lack of confidence in the results of the election and numerous voter discrepancies seen across the country. The Arizona State Senate led by Karen Fann, listened to what their constituents had to say and delivered what their constituents demanded. The vast majority of individuals fail to realize that politicians work for the PEOPLE, not the other way around.
For perspective as to why the citizens of Maricopa County demanded an audit:
Maricopa County, Arizona accounts for nearly two-thirds of votes in the state of Arizona. Maricopa County has not supported a Democratic nominee since Harry Truman in 1948. In 2020, Trump set a record for Republican Presidential nominees for net additional votes in Maricopa, he added 248,000 additional votes from his 2016 performance (he also won this county in 2016). This type of vote increase in one county from an incumbent is unheard of, but yet Joe Biden allegedly won Maricopa County?
Keep in mind, Biden’s margin of “victory” was a mere 10,457 votes for the state of Arizona. The results of the audit prove that widespread voter fraud occurred in Maricopa County and the number of fraudulent ballots far exceeds the margin of victory needed to overturn the state. Now that one of the six heavily contested swing states has shown conclusive evidence of voter fraud, it would be safe to assume similar evidence of voter fraud will also be found in the other five swing states. The outcome from the results of the audit is unknown, but everything seems to point at the Arizona State Legislature recalling their electors and decertifying the state. The recall of electors has never been done before but proof of widespread voter fraud has never before been proven either. We are in uncharted waters and on the verge of a Constitutional crisis. The Federalist Papers have been used throughout history to further understand the intentions and complexities of the Constitution. Number 53 of the Federalist Papers, outlines the State Legislature’s authority to recall electors and to annul an election. With that being said, the next few weeks are sure to be quite interesting.
If ever the tranquility of this nation is to be disturbed, and its liberties jeopardized, by a struggle for power…it will be upon this very subject of a choice of a President. This is the question that is eventually to test the goodness, and try the strength of the Constitution… - James Kent, Commentaries on American Law
Maricopa County Audit Specifics:
A forensic audit like this has never been conducted for a General Election nor do firms specialize in forensic election audits, the Maricopa audit was the first of its kind. Arizona State Senate President Karen Fann, chose Ken Bennett to be the audit liaison between the contractors, state, and the county. Ken Bennett served as the Secretary of State of Arizona from 2009-2015. The State Senate selected the non-partisan cyber security firm Cyber Ninjas to conduct the bulk of the audit. Cyber Ninjas were in charge of the individual ballot examination and were tasked with the inspection of over 2.1 million ballots. Cyber Ninjas specialize in ethical hacking, training, and security program development. In 2015, Cyber Ninjas was named the winner of the prestigious SANS 2015 Difference Makers Award and was presented the award at the Cyber Defense Initiative in Washington D.C. The SANS 2015 Difference Makers Award recognizes those with innovation and skill that have driven advances in information security.
The State Senate also hired the company CyFIR, which specializes in cybersecurity and digital forensics. CyFIR’s team of computer forensic practitioners have extensive experience from serving in the Federal Government, Special Forces, FBI, DEA and CIA. The founder of CyFIR Ben Cotton, has been admitted as an expert witness in legal proceedings with respect to his computer forensics expertise and has testified before U.S. Congress with respect to the Office of Personnel Management data breach in 2015. Cotton was the individual that discovered the Office of Personnel Management data breach, where hackers stole personal information from over 20 million federal employees. CyFIR was tasked with the examination of the voting machines and Maricopa County’s election management system software, to determine if any data breaches had occurred. The company examined everything from county voter information to individual ballot tabulators.
The Arizona State Senate put forth $150,000 as a downpayment for the audit and the remainder of the audit was privately funded. Mainstream media and Katie Hobbs (current Secretary of State) have made egregious claims that the audit was 100% taxpayer funded, which is patently false. Both of these companies had help from hundreds of volunteers to conduct this massive month long forensic audit. The volunteers were put through extensive background checks, they were vetted, had to sign NDAs, and underwent specific training prior to ballots being released to them. The audit took place at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona. The audit had security teams that manned the perimeter of the Coliseum and also had nine+ cameras (added cameras as time went on) with a constant live feed throughout the entire duration of the audit. The claim that the audit lacked transparency is patently false, the entire audit was live streamed.
Maricopa Forensic Audit Report Findings:
Keep in mind, Biden’s margin of “victory” is only 10,457 votes for the entire state of Arizona. The audit focused on four main areas of the election process: voter history, paper ballots, voting machines, and the certified results. On Friday September 24th, Cyber Ninjas and CyFIR presented the audit report findings to the State Senate and live-streamed the hearing. Mainstream media tried to discredit the audit and claim the audit confirmed Biden won the state due to the final tally of votes being very similar to the number of votes that were reported. This claim is inaccurate and the results of the audit actually prove that the state of Arizona shouldn’t have been certified. Large scale fraud has been proven in Maricopa County, now it is up to the State Legislature to act.
Voter History, Ballot, And Certified Results Findings:
The report identified 49,718 questionable votes, 34,466 of which were in the voter history phase, 12,660 were in the certified results phase and 2,592 were in the ballot phase. Pages 5-47 of the report. Here’s an overview of the 49,718 questionable votes:
23,344 mail-in ballots were accepted from individuals who no longer live at the address that the mail-ballot was sent to. “Mail-in ballots voted from prior address” in the voter history phase.
9,041 ballots were returned by voters than received. Voter history phase.
5,295 voters voted in multiple counties. Certified results phase.
3,432 more ballots cast than the list of people who show as having cast a vote. “Official results does not match who voted” in the certified results phase.
2,592 more duplicates than original ballots. Ballot phase.
2,382 in person voters who had moved out of Maricopa County. Certified results phase.
2,081 voters moved out of state during 29 day preceding election. Voter history phase.
1,551 votes counted in excess of voters who voted. Certified results phase.
An additional 3,587 votes were in the “low impact” category across 14 findings.
Results from this section of the report, show that 49,718 total votes from the evaluation of ballots in the voter history, ballot, and certified results phases of the audit are in question. The number of ballots from these phases, far exceeds Biden’s margin of “victory” and suggest the results from Maricopa County should have never been certified. Keep in mind, these findings are from only one section of the report.
Informational Findings Section:
In the Informational Findings portion of the report a multitude of issues were found, including large numbers of ballots also in question, procedural errors, and improper variations of ballots. The issues span from: early votes not accounted for in the EV33 (election data collection software), high bleed through rates on ballots, improper paper utilized, missing subpoena items, no record of voters in commercial database and real time provisional ballots. This portion of the report sheds light on more issues that further question the validity of the Maricopa County election results. Pages 48-61 of the report. Here’s an overview of the Informational Findings:
Audit Interference:
Runbeck Election Services is a privately owned company that provided election services including the printing of all mail ballots for Maricopa County in the 2020 General Election. Prior to the start of the audit, members of the audit team conducted research into the paper, ink, toner and format of the official ballots. As part of that research, the audit team contacted Runbeck CEO, to ask several general questions about the ballots used in the 2020 General Election. Initially, the CEO agreed to a call but then asked for the questions in writing. As requested, the audit team sent Mr. Ellington 5 general questions via email. Mr. Ellington responded to that email and said that Maricopa County instructed him that vendors, even private companies, should not speak with auditors.
Early Votes Not Accounted For In EV33:
The EV33 Early Voting Return Files do not contain entries for 255,326 Early Voters which are recorded in the VM55 Final Voted File. Individuals that vote as part of Early Voting, either by mail or in person, should have an EV33 entry related to their casting of a vote containing details as to when and how that vote was cast.
High Bleed-Through Rates On Ballots:
A large number of the ballots from in-person voting, primarily on Election Day (ED), experienced bleed-through where the marks from one-side of the ballot were clearly visible on the other side of the ballot. This does not happen when the manufacturer recommended paper is utilized under normal circumstances.
The effect of this offsetting can be hampered, however, if the ballot printer is not in calibration (Please see Section 5.7.10, “Out of Calibration Ballot Printers”). When this occurs the mis-calibration causes the front of the ballot to not align where it was intended to on the back of the ballot. If this mis-calibration is off enough it could allow the bleed through to fill out a ballot oval on the other side of the paper and cast a vote, cause an overvote, or simply confuse the tabulator enough to send the ballot to adjudication.
Improper Paper Utilized:
A large number of the ballots from in-person voting, utilized paper that is not recommended by the manufacturer of the tabulators for use in the systems. This can result in higher jam rates, more bleed through, and could theoretically impact the readability of the ballots by the scanners, but this last case is extremely unlikely. At this time 10 different papers have been found. Several of these paper stocks include paper with the weight from 20lb to 30lbs; when the generally accepted best practice for voting is to utilize ballot stock of 80lbs or higher.
Missing Subpoena Items:
The original subpoena dated January 13, 2021, required Maricopa County to provide “Access to all original, paper ballots (including but not limited to early ballots, Election Day Ballots and Provisional Ballots).” The auditors did not receive the following original ballots:
Rejected Provisional Ballots
Uncured Mail Ballots
Ballots returned to the County as undeliverable
No Record Of Voters In Commercial Database:
All voters within the Final Voted File, or VM55, was cross-checked against a commercially available data source provided by Melissa called Personator and 86,391 individuals were found with no record in the database for either their name, or anyone with the same last name at the address in the VM55 file.
Personator is a best-in-class identity and address validation tool. It confirms that an individual is associated with an address, indicates prior and current addresses, tracks when and where an individual moves, tracks date-of-birth and date-of-death.
Real-Time Provisional Ballots:
The Arizona Secretary of State Elections Procedures Manual identifies circumstances that require the issuance of a Provisional Ballot. If a voter appears in the e-pollbook or signature roster as having received an early ballot by mail, but the voter wants to vote in person on Election Day, that voter must be issued a Provisional Ballot. However, Maricopa County reported 58,550 voters who had received mail ballots but were issued standard ballots on Election Day. The County identifies these as “real-time Provisional ballots.” There is no mention of real-time provisional in the AZ Elections Procedures Manual.
The Informational Findings section of the report shows another 400,267 ballots that could not be validated due to the missing information and data files. Further explanation for these ballots is needed to determine the true number of questionable ballots that were found in this section. This portion of the audit report also sheds light on multiple issues, such as audit process interference from Maricopa County officials, the prevalence of high bleed through rates on ballots, and 10 different kinds of paper for ballots have been found. The number of issues identified in this section proves that Maricopa County’s election was disastrous and suggests further investigation was needed prior to the certification of the election results.
Voting Machine Findings:
The final section of the audit report consists of the Voting Machine Findings. This section highlighted various issues that surround the voting machines and Maricopa County’s election management software. The issues span from: Election Management System database being purged, election files having been deleted, corrupt ballot images, missing ballot images, and internet connections with the machines. This portion of the report further solidifies Maricopa County's election results are inaccurate, and the election results in Arizona should not have been certified. Keep in mind, multiple indictments have been recommended to Arizona’s AG for tampering with the County’s election system database. Pages 62-96 of the report. Here’s an overview of the Voting Machine Findings:
Summary Table:
Election Management System Database Purged:
The Election Management System (EMS) database which holds all details associated with the 2020 General Election was purged and all the election results were cleared by a Results Tally and Reporting Admin on February 2 at 5:14pm; the evening before the Pro V & V audit was scheduled to officially start. This means that these were not available for Pro V & V or SLI to perform any type of audit, nor were they available for Cyber Ninjas to review. The next day Pro V & V then proceeded to add new tabulators for their audit, and they imported results into these tabulators further clearing remnants of the database.
Election Files Deleted:
According to the Master File Table (MFT) of the drives, a large number of files on the Election Management System (EMS) Server and HiPro Scanner machines were deleted including ballot images, election related databases, result files, and log files.
Corrupt Ballot Images:
The audit has discovered 263,139 ballot images on the election system that are corrupt and unreadable TIFF format images. It is unclear what events could have resulted in this number of images being corrupted. The corruption of the ballot images in the election system only occurs for ballots that were scanned on or after November 1, 2020. No corruption of ballot images occurred in the 1,347,240 ballots processed on the same nine high-speed scanners prior to November 1, 2020.
Missing Ballot Images:
The total number of ballot images that exist within the body of computer forensics material provided for the audit is substantially less than the official vote totals and the total number of paper ballots audited. 21,273 ballot images are entirely missing from the forensics images of the election equipment. This means that there are electronic votes recorded, but no actual ballot images that correspond to the votes. This makes it impossible to fully validate the results or confirm that the Election Management System (EMS) was not tampered with.
Internet Connections:
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has repeatedly stated that the network connecting the election/voting systems is an isolated network that has no ability to connect to the internet. An in-depth analysis of both the allocated and unallocated space of the EMS, EMS workstations, Adjudication Workstations and other elements of the election system has definitively proven that this is not the case. There were hundreds of connections to public internet sites recovered from the unallocated areas of the hard drives.
The voting machines section of the audit, proves Maricopa County’s election administration is guilty of criminal acts. All election data must be preserved for at least 22 months following an election and the section of this report proves this Federal Law was broken by the election administration. The findings from this section, show that another few hundred thousand ballots could not be verified and further investigation is needed to prove the legitimacy of these ballots. Public officials and the media have repeatedly claimed that the voting machines were not connected to the internet and that has been proven to be inherently false. Keep in mind, Maricopa County continues to withhold vital information necessary for the completion of the voting machine audit.
Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai’s Findings:
Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai examined early voting ballot return envelopes and signature presence for the audit and presented his findings to the Arizona State Senate as an addition to the Maricopa County audit report. Dr. Shiva was able to identify 17,000+ duplicate ballots that were not reported by Maricopa County.
Dr. Shiva’s Credentials:
Overview of His Analysis:
Summary of Results:
Key Findings:
Dr. Shiva’s findings provide further insight into Maricopa County’s disastrous election procedures. Maricopa County failed to report over 17,000 duplicate ballots (25+% of which were delivered between November 4th-9th) and without the necessary information the county election administration has withheld, we have no way of validating these ballots. The lack of transparency from Maricopa County’s election administration suggests they have something to hide.
Keep in mind, the audit is not fully complete but the results presented in this report, are major causes of concern in regard to our nation’s election integrity. As seen above, a multitude of issues were identified throughout the duration of the audit, such as: fraudulent ballots, illegal election procedures, the voting machines were connected to the internet, county election data was deleted, no record of voters in commercial databases, and improper types of paper were used, just to name a few. The reason the media started to push the “Maricopa County audit confirms Biden’s victory” narrative was to try and discredit the report and to discourage people from actually reading the report. If people actually read the report, it’s clear that the state of Arizona should not have been certified nor did Biden win the state of Arizona. The Maricopa County’s election administration was caught tampering and deleting election data, that by Federal law must be preserved for at least 22 months following an election. I would expect to see a few of Maricopa County’s puppets to go to prison, assuming Arizona’s Attorney General Mark Brnovich does his job. Advocating to overthrow of the United States Government through stealing an election, is a form of Treason and Treason doesn’t pay well in the end. The claim that the 2020 election was the “safest” and “most secure” in history, is patently false. Based on the findings of the report, we can conclude that large scale voter fraud and nefarious election related activities determined the outcome of the 2020 General Election.
Maricopa County Audit Volunteers:
Over 1,500 volunteers donated over 100,000 hours of their own time to help complete the 2020 Presidential Election audit in Maricopa County. All of the volunteers who participated in the audit, are residents of Maricopa County and all voted in the 2020 election. Throughout the duration of the audit, the volunteers were bound by their non-disclosure agreements, they are no longer bound to said non-disclosure agreements. Here’s a video of audit volunteers speaking on behalf of what they witnessed during the audit. The video provides clarity behind the multitude of issues that occurred in the 2020 General Election and sheds light on the enormity of the fraud detected in Maricopa County. I highly suggest watching this video.
Arizona State Legislature’s Next Move?
This section will be a bit different, I don’t want to provide too much speculation about what the Arizona State Legislature’s next move will be because no one knows how this is going to play out. The information in this section is my hypothesis of what I think could happen.
Our Country is at the crossroads of a Constitutional crisis, a crisis never before been seen in our Nation’s history. The Arizona State Legislature listened to the wishes of their constituents to conduct a forensic audit and delivered for the people but now, the Legislature has a pivotal decision to make. No historical example exists for the situation our Nation is in, but the Legislature does have full control and oversight over their state’s election system. Now that large scale fraud has been proven in Maricopa County, the Legislature is responsible for rectifying the wrongdoing. Normally if someone steals something and gets caught, they are obligated to return what they stole and I believe that’s how this situation will play out. I’m not making the inclination that Arizona should be awarded to Trump by default but I believe Arizona’s electoral votes should be removed from the total. Hypothetically speaking, if Pennsylvania and Georgia also decertified their state, no candidate would have the necessary share of electoral college votes needed to win, therefore we would not have a President. Where we would go from there, is unknown.
Federalist Paper Number 53, written by James Madison states:
It is an inconvenience mingled with the advantages of our frequent elections, even in single states, where they are large and hold but one legislative session in the year, that spurious elections cannot be investigated and annulled in time for the decision to have its due effect. If a return can be obtained, no matter by what unlawful means, the irregular member, who takes his seat of course, is sure of holding it a sufficient time to answer his purposes. Hence a very pernicious encouragement is given to the use of unlawful means for obtaining irregular returns. Were elections for the federal legislature to be annual, this practice might become a very serious abuse; particularly in the more distant states. Each house is, as it necessarily must be, the judge of the elections, qualifications and returns of its members, and whatever improvements may be suggested by experience for simplifying and accelerating the process in disputed cases, so great a portion of a year would unavoidably elapse, before an illegitimate member could be dispossessed of his seat, that the prospect of such an event would be little check to unfair and illicit means of obtaining a seat.
All these considerations taken together warrant us in affirming that biennial elections will be as useful to the affairs of the public, as we have seen that they will be safe to the liberties of the people.
Number 53 of the Federalist Papers outlines the importance of biennial elections because of the length of time it takes to determine if an election should be annulled. It also outlines the Legislatures duties regarding an election and the return of its members, meaning electors. This passage from the Federalist Papers suggests State Legislatures have the authority to recall it’s electors if an election dispute proves the election should be annulled.
Seth Keshel, a former Army Capitan of Military Intelligence and Afghanistan war veteran, known for his analytical expertise, has published analyses over voting discrepancies in every state based off of historical trends, election trends, and publicly available election related information. His analyses have garnered national attention and even recognition from President Trump. The county by county analyses, sheds light on possible rampant fraud throughout the the country. Seth Keshel recently posted an image that stated “the case to decertify” for the state of Arizona, based off the information from the Maricopa Audit.
Like I said, I don’t want to speculate too much on what the State Legislature can actually do given the results of the audit report. But historical context provides insight to a possible remedy of a fraudulent election. The State Legislature in Arizona has a tough decision to make but they all swore an oath to the Constitution and need to uphold that oath. Only time will tell how this all plays out. One thing is for certain, the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution for times such as these.
Final Points:
I want to start off by saying any talk of 2022 and 2024 is completely irrelevant unless the 2020 General Election gets fixed. Voting in 2022 will be utterly useless unless the fraud is taken care of, otherwise we will have a similar result. Not to scare anyone but at this rate, we will not have a country by the time 2024 rolls around. That’s the reality of the situation and people need to realize that. The “better luck next time” mentality is the reason we are in this mess. People need to find some courage and stand up to the tyranny we are facing. To those that remain quiet or have varying political views, you understand you will lose your freedoms too, right? As James O’Keefe famously says: “Be Brave, Do Something.” Local action has a national impact.
The Maricopa Audit report findings are rather significant and everyone needs to know the truth behind what happened in the 2020 General Election. Mainstream news outlets tried to set the narrative that the audit proved Biden’s “victory” but the report shows otherwise. There were 49,718 ballots that should not have been added to the final results and another few hundred thousand ballots under further investigation. Biden’s margin of “victory” was 10,457 votes and the number identified far exceeds that margin. Major failures in Maricopa County’s election process were exposed and a multitude of issues that surround the county’s election were highlighted as a result of this report. This audit provided massive revelations about what happened in Maricopa County and helps set the standard for election integrity going forward. The Arizona State Legislature has a pivotal decision to make, uphold their oath to the Constitution or allow a fraudulent election to stand. The next few weeks and months are vital to our Country’s survival and will arguably be the most important time in American History. The Constitution and freedom are worth fighting for, otherwise our grandchildren will never know the true blessing of living in America. Fight back locally, local action has a national impact. The next few weeks will be extremely turbulent but as a Country, we are all in this together.
After all this not a thing has been done