GOP Sec of State Candidate Introduces Election Integrity Bills That Should Be Nationwide Standard
Arizona Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem has co-sponsored multiple bills that should be standard nationwide to give voters confidence in the election results.
Finchem — who currently serves as state representative for the 11th legislative district, which runs southeast of Phoenix to Tucson — chaired an ad hoc committee hearing in November 2020 to review alleged irregularities in the general election.
The lawmaker told The Western Journal in a recent interview the findings of that hearing “created probable cause for the Senate 14 days later to issue subpoenas,” which ultimately led to the Maricopa County audit.
Finchem further noted that on Dec. 13, 2021, his committee held a second hearing to look closer at the results in Pima County, which encompasses Tucson.
“We found substantial irregularities to the point where I think there’s a strong likelihood that that election should also be classified as irredeemably compromised and should be set aside,” he explained. “Now, we don’t have all the proof yet because we’re still doing some of the canvassing.”
Finchem argued even though the results of the Maricopa County audit have not led to the legislature decertifying the results, to date, it has exposed election integrity issues that should be addressed.
“If you don’t fix what happened in the past, how are you going to rely on the future?” he asked.
A hand count of the 2.1 million ballots cast found Trump having 261 fewer votes and Biden have 99 more than the official tally for a net gain of 360 votes, according to the AZ Mirror.
However, at a presentation of the findings in September, the audit team reported there were approximately 34,400 duplicated ballots from about 17,000 unique individuals. Additionally, there were 1,771 envelopes with no signatures.
Maricopa County responded, saying the duplicate ballots the auditors discovered were actually multiple scans of ballot envelopes, which occurs when a voter “cures” issues — such as the envelope lacking a signature — but only one ballot is counted per voter.
The same response applied to the envelopes lacking signatures. The envelope is scanned, and then the voter is contacted. When they sign, the envelope is scanned again, according to the county.
By the official count, President Joe Biden won Arizona in the 2020 general election by 10,457 votes.
Maricopa County, which includes the Phoenix metropolitan area, was the only county Biden flipped from red to blue in Arizona in 2020.
Finchem co-sponsored legislation intended to give people more confidence in the election results.
One calls for ballot images to become a public record immediately after the election, searchable by precinct.
Others would require bank note quality, watermarked paper ballots and hand-counting of them.
“Can’t rely on electronic tabulation as the primary means of counting votes,” Finchem said. “We’ve taken the people out of the process and replaced them with electronics, which means we no longer have transparency.”
“Elections belong to the people; they don’t belong to the government,” he said.
These are just the kinds of reforms needed nationwide.
Take our elections back offline and allow as many eyes as possible to review the results.
These changes offer the best opportunities to find and counteract fraud.
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