The Scoop

BREAKING: Judge Orders ‘Pause’ To AZ Senate Audit Of 2020 General Election Ballots

By • April 23, 2021 3:50 pm

A judge has ordered the Arizona Senate to ‘pause’ on the recount of Maricopa County’s general election ballot which will be effective at 5 p.m. Friday.

2.1 million ballots were delivered by the county to the Senate’s custody at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Thursday and the count was ready to start Friday morning.

A last minute lawsuit reported Thursday, was filed by Steve Gallardo who is part of the Arizona Democratic Party and County Supervisor. Gallardo stated that the audit process violates state election law in many ways.

The lawsuit argues that the Senate did not properly set up security to protect the ballots, voting machines and voters information.

A Superior Court Judge, Christopher Coury stated that he wants to make sure that the recount will be compliant with Arizona law and asked for more details by Monday morning about the audit process and procedures.

The audit will be paused at 5 p.m. if Gallardo or the Democratic Party post a $1 million bond.

Arizona GOP posted to Twitter, “Democrats doing everything to stop audit, including filing lawsuits attacking the “integrity” of the process. So NOW they care about #ElectionIntegrity?!?! Nope. They just don’t want Americans to be involved in our own elections. Watch audit live at azaudit.org”

“I do not want to micromanage and it is not the posture of this court to micromanage or even to manage the process by which another branch of government, the Legislature, the Arizona state senate proceeds,” Coury said, reported by AZ Central.

“However, it is the province of the court to ensure voter information and those constitutional protections are held sacrosanct and that also includes the protection of ballots under Arizona law,” the outlet reported.

Lawyer Roopali Desai who is a lawyer for Gallardo and the Democratic Party stated in the hearing on Friday that blue pens were being distributed to workers inside the facility because the audit firms said blue marks could not be read by the ballot processing but that was not true. Blue ink could still be used to mark a ballot and the state’s election procedures manual (Page 214) requires that only red pens must be used to make sure ballots are not tampered with.

On the procedures manual for AZ 2019 Elections shows:

The Hand Count Board, under the direction of the officer in charge of elections, shall:

  1.  Unroll the VVPAT generated by the accessible voting device and verify the precinct.
  2. Mark through all the voided or spoiled votes cast with a red pen/pencil in a manner that is
    visually distinguishable but does not interfere with the ability to read the paper.
  3.  Mark through all provisional votes with a red pen/pencil in a manner that is visually
    distinguishable but does not interfere with the ability to read the paper.

An Arizona Republic reporter alleged the existence of blue pens on the floor who was an observer at the coliseum.

“I noticed the counters had blue pens. Supposed to only have red when you’re around ballots since ballots can read black and blue ink. Those blue pens the counters have could potentially be used to mark the ballots,” the field reporter posted to Twitter.

A field reporter for AZ said, “Doug is running this audit. He told me that his understanding was that blue ink was fine – that the ballots only read black ink. Then he came back and said actually it seems I am correct. But he still seemed unsure. He said that they would work on this.”

“Desai also pointed to an episode the previous evening when officials tried to lock some reporters out of a press conference about the recount. Those reporters looked for a way into the building and found an unlocked door into the building where all of Maricopa County’s ballots are now stored,” the outlet reported.

“There are no safeguards in place. There is no proper training,” Desai argued.

Coury set another hearing for 11 a.m. Monday.

Cameron Shizznit


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