{"id":1810262,"date":"2023-01-19T06:34:53","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T11:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1810262"},"modified":"2023-01-19T06:37:24","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T11:37:24","slug":"maricopa-countys-election-process-marked-by-chaos-and-uncertainty-with-25000-mysterious-votes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/maricopa-countys-election-process-marked-by-chaos-and-uncertainty-with-25000-mysterious-votes\/","title":{"rendered":"Maricopa County\u2019s Election Process Marked by Chaos and Uncertainty, With 25,000 Mysterious Votes"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmaricopa-countys-election-process-marked-by-chaos-and-uncertainty-with-25000-mysterious-votes%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1810262&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mail-in-e1649969162798.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/div>\n<p>The GOP and conservative media are largely moving on from Arizona&#8217;s gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/11\/23\/maricopa-county-made-arizonas-elections-even-more-of-a-disaster-than-people-realize\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">systemic failures<\/a> That occurred in Maricopa County, Nov. 8, according to court testimony and eyewitness accounts. <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/12\/12\/maricopa-countys-maladministration-of-2022-elections-cost-kari-lake-the-governors-race-lawsuit-claims\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lake trial<\/a> include allegations that Arizona\u2019s largest county violated state law by failing to implement chain-of-custody documentation for Election Day ballots, resulting in a mysterious 25,000 extra votes added to Maricopa County\u2019s official tally within a 24-hour period \u2014 more than the margin of victory between Lake and gubernatorial victor Katie Hobbs.<\/p>\n<p>It was about 10:00 on election night when Maricopa County\u2019s ballot tabulation vendor, Runbeck Election Services, received its first truckload of Election Day drop box ballots. Runbeck received seven truckloads of ballots, the last one arriving at 5 a.m. on the morning after the election. However, Runbeck staff found it strange that the deliveries didn&#8217;t arrive earlier in the day. But that wasn\u2019t the only glitch. It was a departure from the usual procedure that there were no chain of custody forms included with the ballots. <\/p>\n<p>Denise Marie, a Runbeck employee, said that drop-box ballots were used prior to Nov. 8. \u201cdelivered in red bins with a chain of custody form\u201d From the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center, which lists how many ballots have been delivered.<\/p>\n<p>But on election night, \u201cinstead of receiving the ballots in red bins, the ballots from the drop boxes had been placed in mail trays and loaded onto mail cages. MCTEC did not include the Maricopa County Delivery Receipt forms with any of the Election Day drop box ballot deliveries. There were no chain of custody forms with the ballots and no count of the number of ballots that were delivered,\u201d Marie wrote in a swear <a href=\"https:\/\/acrobat.adobe.com\/link\/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:093ede4c-6481-371a-85a7-5aa83e06d741\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">affidavit<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Maricopa County Co-Director of Elections Reynaldo Valenzuela even testified that while the county\u2019s election workers count drop box ballots and record the counts on documents as required by law prior to Election Day, they did not count the ballots retrieved from drop boxes on Election Day itself. When Valenzuela was quizzed by the court about the number of ballots dropped in drop boxes on Election Day, he said that he did not know. \u201cOn Election Day, no, because we\u2019re not doing drop box courier process at that time. It\u2019s a different process for Election Day.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Kurt Olsen, Lake attorney, says this is in direct violation <a href=\"https:\/\/codes.findlaw.com\/az\/title-16-elections-and-electors\/az-rev-st-sect-16-621.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Arizona state statute<\/a>This law requires that the county recordinger maintains records to log the chain in custody of ballots. \u201cduring early voting through the completion of provisional voting tabulation.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Per Arizona\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/azsos.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/2019_ELECTIONS_PROCEDURES_MANUAL_APPROVED.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Election Procedures Manual<\/a>When ballots are removed from drop boxes they must be either counted at the local poll center or placed in secure ballot transport containers that can be returned to the county for tabulation. The county recorder or election official must count all ballots in the container and take a retrieval form. <\/p>\n<p>As County Recorder, Maricopa County tabulators received greater number of Election Day drop-box ballots than ever before. <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/20\/az-election-official-stephen-richer-ran-on-election-integrity-now-hes-accused-of-law-breaking-and-politicking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Stephen Richer<\/a> Witnesses testified that they took the ballots out of the ballot transport containers and did not count or record the number on a retrieval sheet for each dropbox. <a href=\"https:\/\/acrobat.adobe.com\/link\/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A093ede4c-6481-371a-85a7-5aa83e06d741&#038;viewer%21megaVerb=group-discover\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">witnessed<\/a> Leslie White is Republican poll watcher. This is a violation the chain of custody requirements that the county recording officer is responsible for implementing. <\/p>\n<p>The ballots were then put in mail trays and loaded onto mail cages, which were then put on trucks and delivered to Runbeck to be scanned and counted, according to supply-chain auditor\u00a0and Lake trial witness Heather Honey. And notably, according to Marie\u2019s sworn affidavit, this loading of ballots into the trucks also occurred without any documentation or record of the number of ballots on each.<\/p>\n<p>Since Maricopa County failed to create its own chain-of-custody documents for the Election Day drop box ballots, Runbeck made its own (called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/acrobat.adobe.com\/link\/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:62d902fa-02fa-3f8b-afb5-aa76bacf7563\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">MC Inbound Receipt of Delivery Forms<\/a>\u201c), which logged the seven truckloads of drop box ballots on election night. Runbeck used the delivery forms to estimate the total number election day drop box ballots at 263,379. This was calculated by multiplying the maximum number a mail tray can hold with the number of trays, as Honey explained to The Federalist.<\/p>\n<p>Jeff Ellington, Runbeck CEO, provided a similar estimate for the number of ballots received via An. <a href=\"https:\/\/acrobat.adobe.com\/link\/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:34f300fe-985a-342e-a07d-11be72f2663f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">email<\/a> November 9, 2009, \u201cwe started getting mail packets dropped off from Maricopa around 10pm last night and received mail packets about every hour through sunrise this morning. Likely between 250 and 275K packets were dropped off at the polls yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Richer spoke at a press conference the following evening. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=B60uGy5W6a0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">affirmed<\/a> Runbeck\u2019s estimate by saying the county had received an unprecedented 275,000 drop-off ballots on Election Day. Maricopa County was also affected that day. <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20221110100341\/https:\/apps.arizona.vote\/info\/bps\/2022-general-election\/33\/0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> the total number of ballots cast in the 2022 general election to the Arizona Department of State: 1,136,849 ballots, with 407,664 ballots left to count \u2014 1,544,513 ballots total.<\/p>\n<p>Maricopa asked Runbeck, at 5:30 p.m. that day, to calculate the total amount of Election Day drop off ballots received. Marie was charged with the tabulation. Marie found that Runbeck\u2019s records showed 298,942 drop box ballots had been received and scanned on Election Day. <\/p>\n<p>As a result of such a discrepancy between the estimate and the official tally, Maricopa County sent a new vote tally to the Arizona secretary of state\u2019s office on Nov. 10 (earlier that day, Richer had sent an <a href=\"https:\/\/acrobat.adobe.com\/link\/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:382fa9ab-ec5f-3cf9-9a0a-5f2cc414dc99\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">email<\/a> to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors admitting he could not reconcile the differences between the county\u2019s numbers and the secretary of state\u2019s listing, demonstrating that even the supposed expert official in charge of the counting process couldn\u2019t figure out where the extra ballots came from). Instead of the original 1,544,513 total ballots reported for the 2022 general election in Maricopa County, the secretary of state\u2019s website now <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20221111111931\/https:\/apps.arizona.vote\/info\/bps\/2022-general-election\/33\/0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">listed<\/a> 1,569,603, an increase of more than 25,000 votes with no explanation. Maricopa County held a second press conference that day. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UJ95-awjtJI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">stating<\/a> It had 292,000 Election Day drop-box ballots and not batting an eye.<\/p>\n<h2>What does this mean?<\/h2>\n<p>Arizona law requires that the county recorder show the origins and chain of custody documents for each drop box ballot. Maricopa County Co Director of Elections Reynaldo Valenzuela and Denise Marie, a Runbeck employee, said that Maricopa County failed to make any chain-of custody documentation for drop-box ballots received on Election Day. This failure means that no records exist to dispute the discrepancy between Runbeck&#8217;s initial report (263,379), and its final tally (298.942), which is a more than 35,000-vote increase. Olsen made this observation in his final argument for the Lake trail. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have a count from MCTEC when those ballots are being transported to Runbeck, how do you know whether that count is secure?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are no chain-of custody documents. This is a violation Arizona law. It shows how Maricopa County was capable of adding more than 25,000 votes to its final total. That addition is more than Hobbs\u2019 margin of victory, which was about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2022\/11\/08\/us\/elections\/results-arizona-governor.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">17,000 votes<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn November 9th, the reported count is 25,000 ballots less, which is beyond the margin here, than on November 10th,\u201d Olsen said. \u201cSo the day after the election, they put out what the count is and then magically 25,000 ballots appear on November 10th, and well, hey, that\u2019s the race.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>While part of the argument Lake\u2019s attorneys used in their <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/12\/12\/maricopa-countys-maladministration-of-2022-elections-cost-kari-lake-the-governors-race-lawsuit-claims\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lawsuit<\/a> seeking to challenge Arizona\u2019s gubernatorial election was that Maricopa County violated its own Election Procedural Manual by failing to implement chain-of-custody documentation, Arizona Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clerkofcourt.maricopa.gov\/home\/showpublisheddocument\/4531\/638074764564181393\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rejected<\/a> the claim due to the county\u2019s assertion that such chain-of-custody documents exist, even though it failed to produce them. At the time of the trial, Maricopa County hadn\u2019t fulfilled a public records request for the documents.<\/p>\n<p>These documents can be used to count drop box ballots, but they are rare. <em>Prior<\/em> Honey reiterated to The Federalist that there is no such chain-of custody paperwork for Election Day drop-box ballots. The judge did not consider this alleged violation of state law and ruled against Lake\u2019s challenge, saying she failed to present clear and convincing evidence of widespread misconduct. <\/p>\n<p>The judge pointed out that Arizona has a ridiculously high standard for overturning elections because of misconduct. Lake had to not only allege misconduct, but also have the authority to overturn elections. <em>Intention<\/em> Conduct that could have an adverse effect on the election&#8217;s outcome. Lake has since filed two appeals \u2014 one with an appeals court, the other with the Arizona Supreme Court. The appeals court reached an agreement. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/news\/politics\/kari-lake-shares-election-update-from-court-of-appeals\/ar-AA16jISa?li=BBnbfcL\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expedite her case<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Matthew Roberts, Communications Manager at the Maricopa County Elections Department, answered questions about the alleged failure of chain-of custody documentation to be in place for the Nov. 8, election. \u201cThere are robust tracking and security procedures in place to document and ensure proper chain-of-custody of early ballots on Election Day. These policies and procedures were followed on Election Day, as well as throughout the early voting period. At no point during the process were chain of custody policies broken or procedures not followed and documented.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Maricopa County Elections Department did not respond to The Federalist\u2019s request for documentation of the chain-of-custody process for the Election Day drop box ballots.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n Victoria Marshall is a staff journalist at The Federalist. Her writings have been published in the New York Post and National Review. Hillsdale College, where she studied journalism and politics, graduated her in May 2021. Follow her Twitter @vemrshll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The GOP and conservative media are largely moving on from Arizona&#8217;s gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake, and the systemic failures That occurred in Maricopa County, Nov. 8, according to court testimony and eyewitness accounts. Lake trial include allegations that Arizona\u2019s largest county violated state law by failing to implement chain-of-custody documentation for Election Day ballots, resulting &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1810265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[15387,5458,5441,8208,3728,3661,15389,8875,4974,3819,15390,4030],"class_list":["post-1810262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-15387","tag-bongino","tag-chaos","tag-countys","tag-election","tag-maricopa","tag-marked","tag-mysterious","tag-process","tag-report","tag-uncertainty","tag-votes"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1810262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1810262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1810265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1810262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1810262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1810262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}