As we enter Week 2 since the botched midterms, there are growing calls for the Arizona general election results to be nullified amid new allegations that the malfunctioning voting machines used on Election Day were never approved for use to begin with.
Republican Josh Barnett tweeted Saturday: “The machines were NEVER approved for use. They weren’t certified according to state law! The entire election should be nullified just based off of this!”
Barnett lost the Republican primary race for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District to GOP incumbent Rep. David Schweikert, who led Democrat Jevin Hodge by just 3,102 votes in the general election, according to the state’s unofficial results.
The former GOP candidate referenced a letter from the elections integrity unit of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office demanding a response from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office “pertaining to issues related to the administration of the 2022 General Election in Maricopa County.”
The letter detailed a number of voter complaints about widespread voting machine malfunctions and printers that suspiciously spat out errors and rejected ballots on Nov. 8.
Trending:
ARS 16-442 (b)
— Josh Barnett for Congress (AZ-01) (@BarnettforAZ) November 20, 2022
The Republican pointed to ARS 16-442 (b), a provision in state election law that says, “Machines or devices used at any election for federal, state or county offices may only be certified for use in this state and may only be used in this state if they comply with the help America vote act of 2002 and if those machines or devices have been tested and approved by a laboratory that is accredited pursuant to the help America vote act of 2002.”
Barnett doubled down on Sunday, saying the election was compromised.
Do you think that the Arizona election should be nullified?
Yes: 96% (22 Votes)
No: 4% (1 Votes)
“The machines were never properly certified by the appropriate accredited company according to state law ARS 26–442(b),” he wrote. “Then every vote cast on those machines is an illegal vote.”
Barnett accused Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer of “lying,” saying, “He said they were certified, but he failed to mention it was by a nonaccredited company.”
The machines were never properly certified by the appropriate accredited company according to state law ARS 26–442(b) then every vote cast on those machines is an illegal vote. Richer is lying. He said they were certified but he failed to mention it was by a nonaccredited company
— Josh Barnett for Congress (AZ-01) (@BarnettforAZ) November 20, 2022
The dominion machines broke ARS 16-442 (b)! They were never certified by an approved laboratory that is properly accredited. @pnjaban pic.twitter.com/RWdqcLxReI
— Josh Barnett for Congress (AZ-01) (@BarnettforAZ) November 20, 2022
The Western Journal reached out to Maricopa County for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
According to the letter sent by the elections integrity unit of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, the voting machines had been tested the night before the Nov. 8 election but then suspiciously started malfunctioning on Election Day.
“Based on sworn complaints submitted by election workers employed by Maricopa County, the BOD printers were tested on Monday, November 7 without any apparent problems,” Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Wright wrote in the letter, dated Saturday.
“Many of those election workers report that despite the successful testing the night before, the tabulators began experiencing problems reading ballots printed by the BOD printers within the first thirty minutes of voting on Tuesday, November 8, 2022,” she wrote.
The state Attorney General’s Office said it had received a “plethora” of complaints about voting issues from election workers, poll observers and voters from various locations, as well as a “comprehensive log” of all changes made to printer settings prior to Election Day.
“Based on sworn complaints … poll workers reported that they were not trained and/or not provided with information on how to execute ‘check out’ procedures” for e-Pollbooks once a voter gave up and left one malfunctioning polling place for another,” the letter said.
Letter to Maricopa by The Western Journal
To further underscore that the election results might be compromised, Wright noted that “Maricopa County has admitted” that it failed to adhere to statutory guidelines for “segregating, counting, tabulating, tallying, and transporting the ‘Door 3’ ballots” — those that could not be properly scanned and thus were placed in a secure slot on vote tabulation machines to be counted later.
By erratically and sloppily commingling ballots, Barnett said, election officials had set the stage for forced adjudication of votes — a process fraught with potential fraud.
“2020 election, it was sharpies,” he tweeted. “2022 election, it is Door 3. Corrupt and illegal.”
Forced adjudication
2020 election it was sharpies
2022 election it is Door 3
Corrupt and illegal
— Josh Barnett for Congress (AZ-01) (@BarnettforAZ) November 20, 2022
Here’s how one voter described the “door 3 fiasco,” as shared by GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake.
James went to vote early on election day & tabulators had already failed
Voters were told to put ballots in Door 3 or go to a separate location
Tabulators weren’t working at the other locations either
7PM: line was around the block
James doesn’t think this was a fair election pic.twitter.com/dAvb5djdhe
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 21, 2022
Republican state Rep. Mark Finchem, who trailed Democrat Adrian Fontes by more than 120,000 votes in the race for Arizona secretary of state, tweeted Sunday, “WE NEED A NEW ELECTION.”
WE NEED A NEW ELECTION
— Mark Finchem #JustFollowTheLaw VoteFinchem.com (@RealMarkFinchem) November 21, 2022
On Monday, Finchem tweeted that this latest election fiasco proves that we must return to using paper ballots because voting machines are not reliable.
“One more reason we must secure our elections with watermarked paper ballots, hand counting, at the precinct level, on Election Day,” he said.
“Other nations around the world do it so don’t tell me it can’t be done.”
One more reason we must secure our elections with watermarked paper ballots, hand counting, at the precinct level, on Election Day. Other nations around the world do it so don’t tell me it can’t be done.
— Mark Finchem #JustFollowTheLaw VoteFinchem.com (@RealMarkFinchem) November 21, 2022
No matter one’s political affiliation, no one can look at what happened on Election Day in Arizona and be 100 percent confident the results were unmarred — whether intentionally or accidentally.
Our elections have become a joke and will stay that way until the process is cleaned up, from top to bottom.
