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Home » Arizona is finally getting a “full forensic audit” of the 2020 voting – but so what?

Arizona is finally getting a “full forensic audit” of the 2020 voting – but so what?

The New Neo Posted on by

This is why voter fraud pays – it takes all this time to start a full audit, and even then it only is happening in Arizona because it has a Republican Senate that ordered it and persevered in the face of opposition:

[Arizona Senate President] Fann noted that the Arizona State Senate and auditors don’t have a particular expectation of the findings.

“We are performing the full forensic audit to either dispel our voter’s concerns, or if a problem is uncovered, we must fix the problems before the next election,” she said.

“We have never accused anyone of fraud or misconduct, whether it be the hardware, software, or actions of personnel.

“We hope there is no intentional illegal tampering but, if found, we will turn the information over to the state and federal attorney generals for their further legal action, and we will proceed to make the appropriate corrections.”

How on earth could anyone object to that? You know how:

Fann said the state’s Republicans have faced “sabotage” by Maricopa County’s Board of Supervisors and that the process has been hindered.

“The Maricopa BOS has refused to allow us to perform the audit at their facilities,” Fann said, “and has gone so far as to refusing to even answer simple questions such as ‘how are the ballots sequestered?’

“It’s taken the Senate two and a half months to win in court to uphold our right to issue subpoenas for election materials and another 6 weeks of researching to select the audit team to perform the full forensic audit.”

Maricopa County is, of course, the location of Phoenix. About the results of the 2020 election there:

Until 2020, it was the largest county in the country to vote Republican. Since 1964, Democrats have held the margin within single digits only four times–in 1992, 1996, 2016, and 2020. In 2020, Joe Biden became the first Democrat in 72 years to win the county, which in turn, resulted in Arizona flipping to the Democratic column for the first time since 1996, and only the second time since 1948. Furthermore, Biden became the first presidential candidate to win more than one million votes in the county. T

Here are the Maricopa County election results as of November 9; I couldn’t find any updates after that, and don’t know if there were any. It’s interesting – the results were more or less the opposite of what happened in 2016, when the vote total was 1,450,268 and Trump won by a margin of 44,454. In 2020 there were 2,007,763 votes cast, and Joe Biden won by a margin of 46,775. That means that the number of voters 2020 represented a 38% increase over the number in 2016 (I hope I did the math right; doing this quickly). So in 2016 Trump’s margin represented 3%, whereas in 2020 Biden’s margin of victory represented 2.3%.

That certainly may be exactly the way the voters cast their ballots there in 2020. But we don’t know, and a proper audit ought to reveal the answer. However, so far I have seen no reason to believe that whatever Maricopa County submits for audit now represents ballots and/or machines that have been handled properly post-election. I also note that it doesn’t seem that this audit will focus on the absentee ballots and envelopes – signature verification and the like. The article certainly doesn’t mention it, nor have I seen anything that does (if you can find such articles, please give links in the comments). Without the ability to go over signatures as well as match envelopes to ballots – something I strongly doubt is even possible at this point – the audit has little meaning.

Recently I wrote a post about a law that has been considered by the Tennessee legislature, requiring the addition of watermarks to the official mail-in ballots. I believe that many kinds of fraud are possible with the system we have in place today and yet much of it is virtually undetectable, even if it were to be investigated in a timely fashion (which also is not going to happen). Watermarks would be a start, but in that same post I described some of the safeguards the British use, which include the following:

Each postal ballot pack contains inside the cover envelope a ballot paper, two envelopes (“A” and “B”) and a postal voting statement. Postal ballot papers contain the following design, security and identification features on the reverse:

–an official mark (e.g. a watermark or an official stamp)
–a unique identifying mark (e.g. a barcode which is different for each individual ballot paper)
–a unique identification number

When issuing each postal ballot paper, the officer marks on a list (called the corresponding number list) next to the postal ballot’s unique identification number the elector number of the voter to whom the postal ballot is sent, and then makes a mark next to the voter’s name in a separate list of postal voters. The unique identification number of the postal ballot paper is also marked on the postal voting statement sent within the postal ballot pack. The local authority name and address and the name of the constituency/ward are printed on both envelopes “A” and “B”. Once all ballot papers for an election have been issued by the returning officer, the corresponding number list is sealed in a packet which can only be opened upon the order of a court when an election result is challenged.

I’d like to know more about how the system actually works in the event of a challenge, including how voters’ vote secrecy is protected. But at least I can see a way in which such a system might yield information that could uncover mail-in ballot fraud, unlike our current system which seems unable to do that no matter when an audit is conducted. However, it’s almost certainly moot, because the legislatures even in red states don’t seem to be considering anything of the sort in terms of comprehensive fraud prevention.

Comments

Arizona is finally getting a “full forensic audit” of the 2020 voting – but so what? — 34 Comments

  1. The vote secrecy seems to be a smoke screen from what I see with the California recall where every signature seems to be scrutinized. Maybe it’s not a vote they will say.
    Everything I read and videos I saw about the fraud vote there is many ways to find it so hopefully some of them are being used.
    Leftists don’t want to know and their Propaganda Ministry won’t report on it.

  2. This must be what a left-wing friend of mine was referring to yesterday when he said that Arizona is allowing Q-Anon to recount votes behind closed doors.

  3. This was the article I saw several days ago. In it Thomas Lifson says,

    Yesterday [April 24] saw the auditors at work [in Maricopa Co.], livestreamed from 9 different camera angles. One of the tests they are using that would scare the pants off of anyone who might have employed counterfeit ballots is scanning with UV Light for the watermarks that were used on the genuine ballots. This video shows an auditor performing that test:

    Watermark testing video in Maricopa county.

    When I commented on this before, I wondered if it was even worth hoping for some non-trivial outcome. What if many 10’s of thousands of absentee ballots are found without watermarks. Then what? Do you think the U.S. AG will get to the bottom of it and take restorative action?

    PS. Neo’s 38% vote increase number is correct and quite large. I have no idea if it is impossibly large. I doubt the fraudsters are that stupid.

  5. I understand the need for computers in voting – we have a huge population

    We had a population of 179 million in 1960 and no computers were used in vote tabulation. We don’t need computers.

    1. Maybe 1 voter in 12 should be casting a ballot by mail, and every last one of them should have a standing order for such a ballot consequent to abiding circumstances specified in the election law.

    2. Paper ballots. Electromechanical tabulation machines in each station and at HQ (where the posted ballots will be tabulated).

    3. Preliminary reporting via e-mail.

    4. Securing each polling place at closing on election night. Securing with two locks = one for the Republican lead inspector, one for the Democratic.

    5. Final reporting via hand-delivered hard copy tally sheets with attestations under oath by the Republican and Democratic lead inspector of each polling station.

    6. Once final talllies are complete, opening of each station and transporting sealed containers of ballots locked therein to a warehouse for retention for a year.

  6. “We had a population of 179 million in 1960 and no computers were used in vote tabulation. We don’t need computers.” Art+Deco

    Agreed. But the democrats do need computers and will never accept anything less than the ‘progress’ computers bring.

    To slightly paraphrase; “Why doth treason never prosper? Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”

  8. History… you know… like we remember the terror murder and mutilation in the congressional record of what the democrats and the knights of the white camelia did during the hayes tilden election…

    oh.. yeah. we dont..

    screw it..

    the only satisfying thing is that when the kids changing things now get through they will be the oldsters that will remember how wonderful it was BEFORE they changed it the way we do…

  9. This is actually very important. For now, the Dems can keep repeating “unfounded accusations”. If even one verifiable proof of fraud is established, that narrative gets knocked in the dirt.

    So, yeah… the Left is doing everything they can to discredit this audit.

  10. Artfldgr,

    You are being naive. By the time the propagandists are done with them they will “remember” “now” as a horrible time of pain and suffering. They will excuse all the poverty, death, privations and suffering as being caused by the evil conservatives.

  13. I wish somebody would explain why the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, with (as I understand) 4 Republicans and 1 Democrat, is so adamantly opposing the audit.

  14. Although he “prevailed” in Maricopa, Biden won Arizona with less than 11,000 votes..
    Gonna upset the apple cart if major fraud discovered.

    AZ 2020 results

  16. “This is why voter fraud pays…” nothing will happen, nothing will change, no one will be expelled, or imprisoned. Even if the fraud is proven, even if the fraud changes the result locally or nationally, nothing will be done to remove the interlopers. Both major parties will agree that expelling a pretender to the throne would wreak havoc, perhaps irreparably, on the nation. A shooting civil war is not worth the risk. Nothing will happen.

  17. ^^ Yup. Indigo+Red is right. And all credit to Neo for her resounding ‘So What?’

    “A shooting civil war is not worth the risk. Nothing will happen.”

    Not for this. It will either be a gun-grabbing, a high-profile SWATting for something else obviously political, or a Black on White mass atrocity. Has to be mass, given that Blacks kill Whites almost daily and there is no push back. The Saxon is Slow.

  18. Indigo+Red,

    Both major parties did agree that expelling a pretender to the throne would wreak irreparable havoc upon the nation. Which is why, when push came to shove… every republican senator acquiesced in Xiden’s ascent to the throne.

    They had a choice between dishonor and an irreparable division and choose dishonor. Which ensured a future shooting civil war. Simply because the Left will eliminate any peaceful resolution of our differences, while imposing an intolerable tyranny upon us.

    So ‘something’ will happen. May God have mercy on our souls.

  19. BOF – “I wish somebody would explain why the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, with (as I understand) 4 Republicans and 1 Democrat, is so adamantly opposing the audit.”

    Three reasons I can think of. Probably a combination of the three.
    – These are McCain apparatchiks who have a deep distain/loathing of Trump. I see this in Michigan with the old guard. This is the most likely reason.
    – Zuckerberg Money – The money was sent but nobody knows who got it and how it was used. This reason has to stay out there until we know where the money went.
    – Embarrassment of how incompetently they ran the election. This plays a part with the two items above. Just like the Georgia SoS.

    Think of what their political peers and their friends reaction will be if the audit proves election irregularities that they were in charge of conducting.

    And this audit doesn’t go into the signature match audit as far as I understand. Maybe this is a two stage audit or they are confident enough that the mis-match of addresses to votes will be enough to invalidate the election results.

    The same thing happened in Wisconsin and Michigan. I saw it at TCF in Detroit. If this domino goes then it is possible that these states will be next in the audit barrel.

    I am not holding out much hope for the Atrium County case. We would know a lot more by now if there was a “there” there.

  20. God has grown weary of being tied down and contorted into a pretzel by grubbing inky lawyers and Gnon, too, will have his day with Icarus, Prometheus, et al.

    I’m agnostic, but I don’t expect to die that way. We’re all going to be humbled and restored to a higher mortality salience mindset before the Fat Lady sings.

  21. @Geoffrey Britain
    For that matter, the Not-So-Grand Old Party showed little interest in vetting Obama’s background or his dubious eligibility for the Presidency.

  22. Neo:

    Dave Leip’s Election Atlas:
    National:
    https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=2020&off=0&elect=0&f=0

    State:
    https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=2020&fips=4&f=0&off=0&elect=0

    Maricopa:
    https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/statesub.php?year=2020&fips=4013&f=0&off=0&elect=0

    Select Arizona, hover over the counties to see the results.

    Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Democratic 1,040,774 50.13%
    Donald J. Trump Republican 995,665 47.96%
    Dr. Jo Jorgensen 31,705 1.53%
    Write-in – – 6,629 0.32%
    Other (+) – – 1,313 0.06%

    Remember, Dave still uses the original “Red=Dem, Blue=GOP” system that was in use until 2000, back when being a socialist (i.e., “Red”) was a bad thing.

  23. Neo: I’d like to know more about how the system actually works in the event of a challenge, including how voters’ vote secrecy is protected. But at least [in a complicated voting system that might be used in the future] I can see a way in which such a system might yield information that could uncover mail-in ballot fraud, [EMPHASIS MINE =MINTA] UNLIKE OUR CURRENT SYSTEM WHICH SEEMS UNABLE TO DO THAT NO MATTER WHEN AN AUDIT IS CONDUCTED.

    ME: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/03/no-wonder-democrats-delaying-everything-related-2020-election-irregular-ballots-2020-election-arizona-can-destroyed-six-months-election/

    Please watch a video in this Gateway article. It is the one lower down, where the man (Jovan Pulitzer) is in a grey sweater with bookshelves behind him. He explains that he has a method in which he can identify invalid ballots from the 2020 election based on paper, ink, layout, and folds in ballots. PLEASE watch this, it is brilliant!!

    He is a very serious person: Pulitzer is the man who invented the now ubiquitous scan code and so much more!!. His CV is 54 pages of patents and methods, at
    https://stanford.academia.edu/JHuttonPulitzer/CurriculumVitae

  24. Epoch Times is running a story that the new Judge, Martin, rejected another bid by the Democrats to halt the counting.

    Minta Marie: I second your endorsement of the Pulitzer video at Gateway Pundit. He certainly has credentials: 200 patents, and seems like a true Geek’s Geek. (That’s intended as a high compliment.)

  25. It wouldn’t surprise me if the audit found nothing. Still, the resistance to it among Democrats and establishment Republicans smells. It’s like the school administrators who bleat about ‘standardized tests’. That’s something you expect of people who’ve got something to hide.

  26. You wonder what the democrats are afraid will turn up in the audit. Sounds like they have guilty conscience.

  27. I just read an article in the Arizona Republic about the audit. It stated that the budget for the audit is $150,000. Even allowing that the counters are all volunteering their time, that’s shockingly low. It takes a long time to count two million ballots by hand, and they are checking ten races.

    There is also the examination of the ballot counting machines. I don’t know what brand were used. If they are Dominion, then the real evidence will be on those memory cards–if they haven’t been wiped.

    Remember the Sharpie pen issue? How some precincts in Arizona were insisting on voters using Sharpie pens, and only Sharpie pens? This is an issue because Sharpie ink will bleed outside the circles voters mark. This can cause a ballot, when read by certain machines, to go into an “adjucation” file. The original ballot is machine scanned and that scan goes into a folder for the adjucation. The orginal ballot drops into the bos with other ballots. The voter is not told of this and is not offered a chance to remake the ballot.

    Once in the adjucation folder, the image of the ballot is examined by precinct workers. They look at the marks for the race in question, then judge the voter’s intent. That ballot image is then moved electronically to whichever candidate’s folder.

    The word is that Dominion’s machines allowed the election judges to move up to 20 ballots at a time. Thus, out of however many ballots were in the adjucation folder, they can be dumped into whichever candidate’s folder, 20 at a time, no examination needed.

    Then there is the Cyber Ninja angle. This is one of the companies that’s supposed to be working on technical issues. This company doesn’t want their trade secrets exposed. There are court battles over this.

    Now one must remember that this is being reported in a newspaper, so the odds of these details being accurate is perhaps 50/50. Modern reporters are stupid and like to be hand-fed stories by their favorite pols.

    There may be a serious plan, with serious people working to accomplish it. But if this is amateur hour, the result will likely be worse than if no audit was done.

  28. MEGO, but reading that procedure, I cannot see how ballot secrecy can be maintained.

    I think it was in 2006 when I first read an article by an academic computer scientist warning about the use of information technology in elections administration contained enormous pitfalls and would damage public confidence in the integrity of the ballot. State legislatures and state agencies charged with elections administration simply ignored such warnings, so we’re in this godawful mess now. It’s another indication, in case you needed one, that our government is staffed with people who cannot make a good decision to save their lives.

    And I cannot figure out except for sheer indolence why the broad public accepts this.

  29. While we’re at it, why does a county with a population of 4.4 million have a five member board of supervisors? Is it because five pols are easier to buy off than 30?

  30. Ah ha. An interesting update article here. There’s a strong claim by the CEO in charge of printing the official ballots that there are no watermarks. But the auditors are using UV lights, and no one in the media knows why.

    A couple amusing points by unimaginative journalists. While many printers put hidden marks on paper, the printers used by the official print shop does not. So looking for hidden marks is pointless. Also, looking for fingerprints is pointless because an normal ballot should have fingerprints.

    Hello! What do you think it means if a ballots are found with hidden printer marks or are completely free of any fingerprints?

  32. Lawfare is now trying to stop the audit after that Democrat judge refused. The “NYU Professor ” is, you guessed it, Weissmann.

    Mr. Scott, if it’s so unprofessional, what’s the point of bringing in a lawyer from New York to fight it?

  34. Now CNN is having volunteers license plates photographed.

    The CNN camera crews worked earnestly to get election audit volunteers on camera; the objective appears to be the familiar threats and intimidation tactics carried out by the news and narrative company in the past. A previous ground report from a local volunteer sent to the Treehouse includes:

    […] “Today law enforcement/security told us there was a vehicle or 2 about two blocks away with a long angle lens taking pictures (he thought) of the people and (I bet) license plates. We saw the one vehicle as we pulled out but couldn’t see in it. Anyway, I expected this. We are dealing with people who have no lowest. It’s getting ugly in the media now; just as usual they start their smear campaign.”

    Banana Republic status beckons.

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