By Steve Otto
A group from Payson was invited to attend the Senate Committee on Elections hearing January 23, 2023 chaired by our LD-7 Senator Wendy Rogers. Inclement weather prevented our trip to the Capitol but the video system accessed through AZLEG.GOV worked flawlessly to observe the hearing remotely.
This hearing was the first of the new legislative session so there was a round of introductions, senators and staff, adoption of rules and Senator Rogers using her military experience to tell all in attendance how the observation of decorum was not an option. Well done, Senator Rogers.
The first testimony was from Shelby Busch, founder of We The People of AZ Alliance organization. Shelby’s organization was granted access to 1.9 million 2020 mail-in-ballot envelopes September 22, 2022 by former Senator President Karen Fann for voter signature analysis, and 5.3 million voter registrations from 2021 were acquired by Freedom of Information Request for signature verification.
The key takeaways from the 2020 ballot envelopes was 25% of Maricopa County’s 420,987 envelopes failed signature verification. 1,870 envelopes were unsigned, a violation of ARS-16-550. 550 envelopes signed by someone other than the voter, a violation of ARS-16-547. 2104 envelopes had inconsistent scribbles, a violation of ARS-16-549. 120 duplicate ballots, a violation of ARS16-1016. And my favorite, 48,117 unreasonably different signatures, a violation of ARS-16-152. The total number of signature failures in the sample from Maricopa County totaled 181,378 out of the 420,987 envelopes supplied to We The People of AZ Alliance.
Blank envelopes may not be counted, period! Envelopes without signature but with phone number may be cured, “fixed”, if the voter comes in with ID to sign the envelope before 8:00 PM on election night—many were allowed to be cured days after the deadline! Someone in the Maricopa County elections process put stickers over the signature box on the envelope—altered ballots MUST NOT be counted!
A subpoena issued by a court provided information that not only did these problems occur in 2020 but the problems were not fixed for the 2022 election. 10% of the 2022 Maricopa County ballot envelopes examined had egregious failures and should not have been counted.
Maricopa County vote tabulators rejected 1/4million vote attempts per Freedom of Information Request from January 2023 system log files and Cast Vote Records. Maricopa County had a total of 446 tabulators in use for the 2022 general election. These tabulators recorded 250,000 failed vote attempts which is 235 times the expected failure rate! The
expected failure rate per Federal standards is less than .05%.
Shelby Busch’s exhibits and facts were so compelling that Senator Rogers asked her if she would swear under oath as to the truthfulness of her presentation. Shelby did swear under penalty of perjury that to the best of her knowledge everything she presented was true. Dr. Walter Daugherity who provided statistical analysis also swore to the truthfulness of his work.
Senate bills SB1025 and SCR1002 were discussed and approved to be sent on to the full senate. SB1025 was a bill clarifying where political signs may be placed. SCR1002 set the vote threshold to amend the Arizona Constitution at 60%.
All of this information is available on the AZLEG.GOV website and I would urge anyone who believes in election integrity to watch the entire 3 hour hearing. Senator Rogers did an outstanding job as Chair and is a credit to her constituents in LD-7. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
If you are going to watch: in “settings” for videos, there is a speed button. It can be watched at 1.25 or maybe up to 1.5 speed.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
