© Mark Makela/Getty ImagesDemocratic presidential nominee Joe Biden delivers a Thanksgiving address at the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Del., on Nov. 25, 2020.
Arizona's secretary of state on Monday certified the state's presidential election results.
"This was a historic election for several reasons. Preparing for any election is an immense undertaking, even in normal circumstances. The complexity this year has been compounded by the pandemic. In spite of this, we had an extremely well-run election and saw historically high voter participation," Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, said in a press conference.
"Despite the many challenges, Arizonians showed up for our democracy. Every Arizona voter has my thanks, and should know that they can stand proud that this election was conducted with transparency, accuracy, and fairness, in accordance with Arizona's laws and elections procedures despite numerous unfounded claims to the contrary."
Hobbs challenged claims of election fraud, saying all voting machines are certified by a federal commission and reviewed by state officials, that credentialed poll observers witnessed all ballot tabulating, and cameras were in ballot tabulation centers with live streams able to be viewed over the Internet.Few people were present at the certification meeting because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gov. Doug Ducey, Attorney General Mark Brnovich, and Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court Robert Brutinel were present.
Ducey, a Republican, said people suggested not having in-person voting because of the pandemic but he fought to keep the system in place.
"The votes have been tabulated. All 15 counties have certified their results," Ducey said. In a separate statement, he said he's grateful to voters, county officials, county recorders, and poll workers "for their dedication to the success of our election system."
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was certified as the winner of Arizona. He beat President Donald Trump by about 10,500 votes out of 3.4 million cast, according to Hobbs' website.
Trump won Arizona in 2016 over Hillary Clinton by about 91,000 votes.
Officials will choose Electoral College voters later, all of whom are expected to vote for Biden next month. Arizona law bans so-called faithless electors who vote for the candidate who didn't win a state.
The certification took place at the same time some state lawmakers in Phoenix were hearing of concerns of election integrity from President Donald Trump's lawyers, experts, and witnesses.Rudy Giuliani, one of the lawyers,
said that
the state legislature should hold a vote to take back control of certifying the election.
"You, the legislature of Arizona, have the plenary power to regulate the selection of electors in a presidential election," he said, adding that the Supreme Court has ruled that state Houses and Senates can reclaim the power to name electors.
Jenna Ellis, another campaign lawyer, said in a statement: "The certification of Arizona's FALSE results is unethical and
knowingly participating in the corruption that has disenfranchised AZ voters. BUT, this in no way impacts the state legislature's ability to take back the proper selection of delegates."
The certification makes official Mark Kelly's win over Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.). Kelly, a Democrat, is slated to be sworn into office this week because he won the seat in a special election. The seat was held by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) until he died in 2018, eventually triggering the appointment of McSally by Ducey.
Comment: What a complete and utter farce.
Arizona officially had a record-setting
79.7% turnout, the highest in the country, and in its own history. As one of the witnesses in the hearing pointed, that might be because while population has only grown around 1% annually in AZ, the voting population has grown around 7% annually. Do the math.
Here's Governor Ducey lying his face off:
That's not what the poll watchers say. Multiple observers either were blocked for watching signature verification, or directly observed fraud during the process when allowed to see it conducted on duplicate ballots.
State Rep. Mark Finchem, during the
hearing,
issued a call for the state legislature to withhold Arizona's Electoral College votes on the basis of the evidence for fraud.
"We are clawing our electoral college votes back, we will not release them. That's what I'm calling our colleagues in both the House and the Senate to do," added Finchem. "Exercise our plenary authority under the U.S. Constitution."
He added, "There is a legal brief out there that says we are not tethered to state statue. When it comes to this one question, a simple majority can call the House and Senate back, and in a day pass a resolution, and cause those electors to basically be held. And it is binding. I'll see you all in court."
Standing nearby was Sonny Borrelli, the Republican Senate Majority Whip, indicating Finchem's plan may already be receiving support among the Arizona Republican Party's leadership.
Among the evidence presented at the hearing: the Maricopa County GOP chairwoman observed Trump ballots being
switched for Biden, among other gross violations of election law and procedure. Cybersecurity expert Phil Waldron revealed that Dominion's machines
were connected to the internet, with traffic going to overseas servers. He also
revealed an anonymous email sent to the DOG and state officials alleging that counts were preloaded for all Democratic candidates in Pima County, numbers that match the observable data from the running count on election night.
The same day, a judge
granted the AZ GOP leader's request for a partial sample review of ballots to look for irregularities. But he capped the number ridiculously low, at 200, saying it should be enough to know if there's a red flag.
Warner issued the order from the bench after an hour-long preliminary hearing Monday that occurred as state officials were certifying the election. It was the first major proceeding in an election contest pursued by Ward, who's attempting to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's win in Arizona by having a judge void the results.
Her challenge, which could not formally be filed until after certification,relies on a state law that allows voters to dispute election results if they suspect misconduct by election officials, illegal votes or an inaccurate count. Without evidence, Ward's lawsuit questions the signature verification process used to authenticate mail-in ballots, as well as the duplication process election officials use to count ballots that tabulation machines couldn't read.
Regarding mailed early ballots, Ward contends election officials did not have appropriate safeguards in place to ensure signatures on voters' envelopes matched the signatures on file for those voters. Though observers appointed by Arizona political parties were present as signatures were verified, she claims they had to watch the process from 10 to 12 feet away, making it impossible to see clearly even with binoculars.
"Many of our observers were unable to actually observe in any meaningful way," Ward said in a video posted to Twitter before Monday's hearing. "We need to examine those signatures on those envelopes that ballots came in, so that we can make sure that real people voted in this election."
Regarding the duplication process for damaged ballots โ in which a bipartisan team of county workers interprets votes on the original ballot and fills in a new one that can be run through a tabulator โ Ward alleges observers were not invited to be present for the full process.
She also claims election officials used software that was "highly inaccurate" to read the damaged ballots, "leaving it up to county workers or on-site observers" to catch mistakes. And she has cited an "unusually high number of duplicate ballots" from a Queen Creek vote center โ at most, 104 ballots, according to election officials.
"Things are way too close to just let things go," she said Monday, referring to the 10,457-vote margin between Biden and President Donald Trump in Arizona.
During the preliminary hearing, Warner said he would allow Ward's lawyers to compare signatures on 100 random early ballot envelopes with the signatures on file for those voters, instead of the thousands of ballots Ward's team initially sought to review.
He said he would let the team inspect 100 ballots election officials worked to duplicate after tabulators failed to read them as well.
"From a statistical standpoint, I don't think you need a huge sample to know whether there are irregularities or misconduct," he said.
UPDATE: The AZ GOP has given an update about the above lawsuit. They were allowed to audit 100 duplicate ballots. The found 1 vote from Trump was counted as Biden, and another vote for Trump was simply not counted for him. That's 2%.
Comment: What a complete and utter farce.
Arizona officially had a record-setting 79.7% turnout, the highest in the country, and in its own history. As one of the witnesses in the hearing pointed, that might be because while population has only grown around 1% annually in AZ, the voting population has grown around 7% annually. Do the math.
Here's Governor Ducey lying his face off:
That's not what the poll watchers say. Multiple observers either were blocked for watching signature verification, or directly observed fraud during the process when allowed to see it conducted on duplicate ballots.
State Rep. Mark Finchem, during the hearing, issued a call for the state legislature to withhold Arizona's Electoral College votes on the basis of the evidence for fraud. Among the evidence presented at the hearing: the Maricopa County GOP chairwoman observed Trump ballots being switched for Biden, among other gross violations of election law and procedure. Cybersecurity expert Phil Waldron revealed that Dominion's machines were connected to the internet, with traffic going to overseas servers. He also revealed an anonymous email sent to the DOG and state officials alleging that counts were preloaded for all Democratic candidates in Pima County, numbers that match the observable data from the running count on election night.
The same day, a judge granted the AZ GOP leader's request for a partial sample review of ballots to look for irregularities. But he capped the number ridiculously low, at 200, saying it should be enough to know if there's a red flag. UPDATE: The AZ GOP has given an update about the above lawsuit. They were allowed to audit 100 duplicate ballots. The found 1 vote from Trump was counted as Biden, and another vote for Trump was simply not counted for him. That's 2%.