quick take
A judge on Dec. 24 dismissed Kari Lake’s claim that there was no chain of custody of the 300,000 mail-in ballots made in Maricopa County, Arizona during the 2022 election, but took to social media. posts continue to spread baseless claims. Election officials said every mail-in ballot in the county had its own barcode and set of storage documents to ensure security.
full story
November 14, Associated Press Arizona Gubernatorial Election Called Former Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs won 50.3% of the votes when all the votes were tallied in her race against Republican candidate Kari Lake.
But Arizona — Maricopa county In particular, it has been targeted by error When misleading Election fraud allegations and accusations spread by lake When others Since Election Day.
so filed a civil lawsuit Lake made several allegations of alleged wrongdoing to Hobbes and Maricopa County officials on December 9. These included allegations that county election officials violated state law with his nearly 300,000 mail-in ballots.
on page 45 of filing, “Maricopa County failed to maintain and document the chain of secure custody required for hundreds of thousands of ballots in violation of Arizona law,” the complaint reads.
lake claim Having “whistleblowers and witnesses with direct knowledge” that the county has violated a set of state administrative rules, which allows county employees to add an unknown number of votes to the count. I was.
county submitted motion dismiss the lawsuit on December 15claimed that Lake had misunderstood the form required by the chain of custody processes.
Prefecture Said Lake’s allegations are based on “a series of custody cases based on an incomplete understanding of election administration and unsubstantiated speculation about what could happen at county contractor Lambeck Election Services. It’s not based on claims of what actually happened.”
19 December, Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson control Lake’s case could go to trial in two of the first 10 cases. This included allegations of a chain of ballot storage and allegations that “intentional actions” by election officials on Election Day caused some ballot printers to malfunction, resulting in Lake’s loss. increase. .
Lake’s Witness, Heather Honey, Investigator and supply chain auditors, county election officials testified at trial that: did not provide She had a delivery receipt showing that the county followed a chain of custody procedures for ballots posted in drop-boxes on Election Day.but meanwhile cross-examination By county attorney, Honey testified that the forms existed and had seen them in photographs. They were not physically provided through public records requests.
honey too testified Employees of Runbeck Election Services election software company Headquartered in Phoenix .Later Honey Said She couldn’t identify those 50 votes.
On December 24, Thompson dismissed the last two counts of Lake’s lawsuit, saying Lake failed to provide evidence that officials deliberately took steps to alter the outcome of the election.
judge Said“All witnesses in court denied having any personal knowledge of such wrongdoing. ”
A few days later, Judge ordered Lake pays Hobbes $33,040 in witness fees.
lake appealed Thompson’s Dec. 27 ruling calls on state appeals courts to take “special action” and expedite her request to have the election results reversed. The court agreed to hear the case on February 1. Reported by KGUN.
Lake also submitted Request for transfer Appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court on December 30.supreme court Decline Lake’s requestsaid Lake would have to go through an appeals court process.
Meanwhile, claims continue to circulate on social media that Maricopa County had no ballot control system.
so December 29th In an interview with conservative commentator Larry Elder, Lake claimed that he “won a landslide” and that “almost 300,000 votes had no chain of custody” and “who knows where.” Said. Lake’s interview was Facebook post It was written by Arizona Senator Wendy Rogers and has been viewed more than 106,000 times.
Ah facebook video Posted on Dec. 29, shared the allegation that there is no chain of custody of the 300,000 votes cast. The post has garnered nearly 1,500 views and 1,700 likes. The video contains images of. Tweet From a lawyer who said, “The missing vote cast doubt on the election so that the records necessary to prove the chain of control disappeared.”
However, the claim that the series of archived documents “disappeared” is unfounded.
As previously stated, Lake’s witness testified that the forms existed and that he had seen pictures of them.
Maricopa County Elections Authority spokesman Matthew Roberts said in an email Jan. 6 that the county is following all required custody policies and procedures during the 2022 election.
“We have robust tracking and security procedures in place to document and ensure an adequate administrative process for early voting on Election Day. We were protected,” said Roberts. “At no point in the process was the chain of custody policy violated or the procedures not followed or documented.”
Chain of Custody Process in Maricopa County
The Maricopa County Elections Office 2022 Election Plan For primaries and general elections, it said each mail-in ballot would be tracked with a unique postal barcode and “a robust set of administrative documents that track early voting as it progresses through all stages of the process.”
“The combination of unique barcodes and these sets of archived documents ensures the integrity and security of early voting,” the plan said.
Prior to the ruling that Lake’s case could go to trial, Roberts explained the mail-in ballot sequential process in an email to FactCheck.org on Dec. 13.
“The Office of Elections receives mailed-back ballots directly from the USPS Regional Depot in Phoenix. said.
According to Roberts, mail-in ballots picked up from USPS warehouses are delivered to Lambeck Election Services. The elections department staff who received the ballots and his Runbeck staff will sign a series of custodial transfer slips to document the transfer.
Runbeck then scans the affidavit envelopes to capture images of the voters’ signatures and puts them into an automated system operated by the Maricopa County Elections Authority. signature verification.
by 2022 Election Plan“After the initial inbound scan pass, Runbeck will store unopened ballot packets in secure, watertight and fireproof vaults onsite, and Elections Bureau staff will review digital images of voter affidavit signatures. …so you don’t have to deal with the actual physical voting packet multiple times.
Receipt and return of ballot packets between USPS, Runbeck, and the Maricopa County Counting and Election Centers will be “regular and controlled to ensure that the processing timeframes required to tally ballots in a timely manner are maintained.” done on a schedule. election plan.
Ballots placed in secure and sealed drop-boxes are collected by ballot carriers who work with the Elections Department in a bipartisan team of two to collect ballots. The team then fills out a series of storage forms with vote center inspectors or representatives of government facilities, and ballot boxes are sealed with tamper-resistant seals, Roberts said.
“All seals are recorded on the form. The ballot will be returned to the elections office, where the ballot audit will be completed,” Roberts said.
Once audited, ballots are sent to Runbeck and follow the same procedures as mail-in ballots.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org one of several organizations Integration with Facebook To debunk misinformation shared on social media.You can find previous stories hereFacebook is no control About our editorial content.
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Maricopa County Elections Office.2022 Election Plan’ Accessed December 16, 2022.
Jones. Blair. “Viral video spews unsubstantiated claims about early voting in Arizona” FactCheck.org. 1 November 2022.
Jones. Blair. “Misleading Posts About Election Day Voting Counts in Maricopa County1 December 2022. FactCheck.org.
Patel, Komal. “Posted false claims to show Hobbes in election tally room in Arizona11 November 2022. FactCheck.org.
Roberts, Matthew. Communications Manager, Maricopa County Elections Office. Email FactCheck.org. December 13, 2022.
Lambeck Election Service.Creme Vs.fact’ Accessed December 16, 2022.
Lambeck Election Service.Our company’ Accessed December 16, 2022.
Spencer, Saranac Hale. “Ballot printers delayed Maricopa votes, contrary to unsubstantiated claims” Updated November 29, 2022.
Spencer, Saranac Hale. “Ballot processing continues in heavily monitored states amid unsubstantiated fraud allegations” Updated November 19, 2022.
