An SOS From Ground Zero

Maricopa County Hangs in the Balance

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I love Arizona.

I’ve lived here since fleeing Chicagoland in 1984.

It’s the most amazing place to live. And living in the Phoenix area (the now infamous Maricopa County) gives its residents the best of all worlds. Palm trees. Cactus. Swimming pools. Arizona Office of Tourism weather that the country covets half the year.

Driving around the state is easy and always an adventure. The Grand Canyon. Tombstone. Antelope Canyon. Winslow and Route 66. Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine. Sedona. Bisbee. Petrified Forest. Jerome.

This is big sky country, where you can often see the clouds throwing shade on the gorgeous mountains across the state. And the desert is unimaginably beautiful, especially after the spring rains. In the middle of the summer heat, you can drive two hours north to higher elevations and weather that is 30 degrees cooler than the Valley of the Sun.

No tornados. No hurricanes. An occasional forest fire in the mountains, hours from most of the state’s population. The excitement of an infrequent, but dramatic, “haboob” (which used to be called a dust storm. But “haBOOB” is a more exciting term, isn’t it?) After a haboob, Arizonans will often post a meme showing a lawn chair lying on its side with the caption, “Marked Safe After Another Arizona Haboob.” Looks dramatic, but it’s more of a dry heave. There’s lots of dust in the desert.

I love Arizona so very, very much.

And I’m sending out an SOS.

SAVE. OUR. STATE.

The elections system in Arizona is appallingly broken.

There are two new comedy shows playing on Twitter.

The first is called “Arizona Elections for Dummies with Mr. Bill.” The folksy, singsongy, friendly Chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Bill Gates, just went on a weekend bender, posting video after video on the @MaricopaCounty Twitter feed, answering voters’ questions.

True confession: I just can’t watch them all. I’ve watched a few, and they make my stomach turn. Here’s a sample.

Maricopa County @maricopacounty

This weekend, Chairman @billgatesaz is answering some of your questions about how we run elections. One question has to do with the transport trucks that run between @MaricopaVote and our vendor. Here’s what they do.

Side bar: You may remember my article about Runbeck Election Services on November 14, The Plot Thickens in Maricopa County. Interesting that Q’s latest drop on November 18 mentioned Runbeck, isn’t it?

The other Twitter comedy show is happening on current Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s feed. At what could be considered the most critical time in the state of Arizona’s history, with election results in question and being watched by the world, here was a tweet from Arizona’s top law enforcement official on Friday.

Yep. That’s MY Attorney General! I’m SO proud.

Another admission: I haven’t heard ONE person in either the mainstream media or independent media say that they understand why Brnovich would be considered “acting governor.” According to Article V, Section 6 of the Constitution of Arizona (entitled “Death, resignation, removal or disability of governor; succession to office; impeachment, absence from state or temporary disability,”) the order of succession for the Arizona governorship goes to the Secretary of State first, THEN the Attorney General.

My guess is that Governor Ducey was headed out of state on Friday, creating a “temporary disability,” so somebody needed to take the helm. But why Brnovich and not Hobbs?

Maybe Hobbs, as the current Secretary of State, is TOO BUSY trying to certify her OWN ELECTION?

If we had any real journalists in Arizona, maybe someone could ask that question.

But I digress. The point is that Brnovich decided to crack wise to the WORLD while Arizona is burning down all around him.

We are a freaking HOT MESS over here.

Just to give you some background, Brnovich has been AG since 2015. He wanted to be a US Senator, but Arizona wouldn’t have him. He came in THIRD in the August primary.

His senate bid loss might have something to do with the fact that he seems to have poor judgment about what Arizonans want to know about their Attorney General. Here’s a tweet from May 13, 2019.

Mark Brnovich @GeneralBrnovich

Clearly, my years of martial arts training paid off. Pulled my old nunchaku out of storage...like riding a bike. #WayOfTheDragon

And then on October 15, 2021, after the Arizona audit of the 2020 election and as awareness of his existence increased, Brnovich posted a video on Twitter that won the internet that week. I believe he was trying to encourage us that our “tough guy” AG would take action on the fraud that was proven by the audit.

Mark Brnovich @GeneralBrnovich

You want the nunchucks. You got the nunchucks.

Oh, we got the nunchucks, all right. Brnovich did NOTHING to fight election fraud after 2020.

My guess is that Brnovich, as a Republican, is either compromised or playing a specific role in this movie. He spent quite a bit of time with our POTUS prior to the Florence, Arizona, rally last year. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall.

In my article, Why Kari Lake Will Lose in Arizona on November 5, I gave a warning about the election: “One critical thing to keep an eye on: The left can’t JUST flip the Governor’s race. No, THE LEFT WILL NEED TO FLIP THE ENTIRE REPUBLICAN DOWN-BALLOT TICKET in order for the Governor’s race results to be believable.”

Oops-a-daisy.

At the time of this writing on November 21, here are the current STATEWIDE vote counts from the Arizona Secretary of State’s website under a link called, “2022 Unofficial General Election Results.”

Let me make this graphic easier to digest.

• 1,321,435 votes were cast for the US Senate race.

• 1,287,322 votes were cast for Arizona Governor.

• 1,320,059 votes were cast for Arizona Secretary of State.

• 1,254,096 votes were cast for Arizona Attorney General.

• 1,389,215 votes were cast for Arizona State Treasurer.

So you’re telling me that the four TOP races in Arizona (US Senate, Governor, Secretary of State, and Attorney General) got FEWER votes than State Treasurer statewide? I never even saw an AD or a ROAD SIGN for State Treasurer in this election cycle. That was NOT a high-profile race.

And it wasn’t just a “few” Arizonans that thought the State Treasurer office was more important than the contests for US Senate, Governor, Secretary of State, or Attorney General. It was THOUSANDS!

• 67,780 more people voted for State Treasurer than US Senate

• 101,893 more people voted for State Treasurer than Arizona Governor

• 69,156 more people votes for State Treasurer than Arizona Secretary of State

• 135,119 more people voted for State Treasurer than Arizona Attorney General

What if the cheat didn’t happen on the State Treasurer race? What if the Bad Guys didn’t go down ballot that far?

Well, the proof is in the puddin’.

These people are stupid.

Kimberly Yee, the Republican candidate, got 55.7% of the vote.

It wasn’t even close.

As the Resident might say, “C’mon, man!”

So here we are, two weeks post-election. And it’s NOT over.

It’s BUSY in Arizona, friends. Lawyers are swarming again. We have some savage lawyers fighting for election integrity in Arizona, like our beloved Harmeet Dhillon.

All of our candidates have untold numbers of people (both paid and volunteer) who are getting muddy in the trenches right now, fighting for election integrity. Check out the response this Kari Lake volunteer got from Civil Division Chief of the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office Tom Liddy last week.

Kari Lake War Room @KariLakeWarRoom

We've asked Maricopa County for answers. This is what we get in return.

SIDE BAR: Yes, Tom Liddy is G. Gordon Liddy’s son. Yes, THAT G. Gordon Liddy from Watergate. I worked with Tom back in the day when he was a radio talk show host. My comment: No comment.

I know it’s Thanksgiving week, but keep your eyes on reliable independent news sources like Badlands Media. This week is going to be CRAZY in Arizona. Why?

Because over the weekend, a hint of governmental sanity bravely raised its head. Jennifer Wright, Assistant Attorney General of Arizona, wrote a very interesting letter to Tom Liddy at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. (Let’s not hold working for Brnovich against Ms. Wright. She’s my hero right now).

Highlights? There are three big buckets of issues in this letter.

Wright starts off explaining that hundreds of citizen complaints, including first-hand witness accounts have raised concerns “regarding Maricopa’s lawful compliance with Arizona election law.” OUCH.

Election Day Ballot-on-Demand Printer Configuration Settings

• “According to Maricopa County, at least 60 voting locations had issues related to some ballot-on-demand (BOD) printers having printer configuration settings that were non-uniform, which appeared to have resulted in ballots that were unable to be read by on-site ballot tabulators.”

• Even though the machines had been tested the day before the election, problems with printers and tabulators started to happen within 30 minutes of the polls opening on November 8.

• “Based on the plethora of reports from election workers, poll observers, and voters, combined with Maricopa County’s admission that there were in fact widespread problems related to non-uniform BOD printer configuration settings, the Unit requests that Maricopa County provide a comprehensive report detailing with specificity …”

• The list of what they want is HUGE. Precise information for every polling location with precise times, precise names, etc. They want the RECEIPTS.

• My favorite section is what they ask for in #7: “the method used to update or reconfigure the printer configuration settings at each voting location (specifically, if technicians were sent to the voting location, when were they deployed in the field and when did they make the changes at each voting location; alternatively, if the network administrator was able to make universal changes, please detail when and how the printer configuration settings were corrected).”

• Interesting again. I thought none of the machines was supposed to have internet access?  Hmmmmm. This is getting GOOD.

Election Day “Check-out” Procedures

• There was an obvious deficiency in training for poll workers. If a voter couldn’t vote at one polling place and was told to go to another, when they got to the second location, the system showed that they were already checked in at the first location. So they had no remedy to vote. Overall it seems as if poll workers hadn’t been trained well about the use of the “provisional ballots” process. Again, Assistant AG Wright asked for a plethora of documentation about training procedures, check-out processes, and more.

Ballots Deposited in Door 3 and Statutorily Required Election Board Close Out Duties

• Ahhhhhh. The now infamous “Door 3.” My husband and I were instructed to put our ballots in Box 3 (we had a “box,” not a “door” …. It was literally labeled “BOX 3”) because there wasn’t a working tabulation machine at our polling place. Our radar instantly went up. We were reassured that the Box 3 ballots would be accompanied by BOTH a Republican AND a Democrat when being brought to the MCTEC (Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center.) Gee, that was so COMFORTING! After all, there couldn’t possibly be RINOs OR DINOs out there, could there?

• Now it’s getting juicy. From Assistant AG Wright’s letter: “Maricopa County appears to have failed to adhere to the statutory guidelines in segregating, counting, tabulating, tallying, and transporting the ‘Door 3’ ballots. In fact, Maricopa County has admitted that. in some voting locations, ‘Door 3’ non-tabulated ballots were commingled with tabulated ballots at the voting location. Further, we have received a sworn complaint from an election observer indicating that more than 1700 “Door 3” non-tabulated ballots from one voting location were placed in black duffle bags that were intended to be used for tabulated ballots.”

Assistant AG Wright’s letter ended very specifically:

• “Arizonans deserve a full report and accounting of the myriad problems that occurred in relation to Maricopa County’s administration of the 2022 General Election. As the canvass is looming, and these issues relate to Maricopa County’s ability to lawfully certify election results – the Unit requests a response to the aforementioned issues on or before Maricopa County submits its official canvass to the Secretary of State, which must occur on or before November 28, 2022. See A.R.S. § 16-642(A).”

• Note that the “canvass” mentioned in the letter is also known as the “certification” of the election results. The “canvass” process is detailed in A.R.S. § 16-642A. It states, “The governing body holding an election shall meet and canvass the election not less than six days nor more than twenty days following the election.”

• As I read further into that statute, I found C interesting: “C. If, at the time of the meeting of the governing body, the returns from any polling place in the election district where the polls were opened and an election held are found to be missing, the canvass shall be postponed from day to day until all the returns are received or until six postponements have been had.”

THEN what? Well, I do believe we’re in uncharted territory, friends.

You can read the full letter here.

Special note: Nunchucks were NOT mentioned in the four-page letter.

Who is Jennifer Wright? Talking Points Memo published an article entitled, "GOP Voter Fraud Hawk Hired For Arizona AG’s New ‘Elections Integrity’ Unit" on August 22, 2019. (Hat tip to @PrayingMedic for the article!)

From the article: "A Tea Party-linked voter fraud activist known for her vigilante approach to poll-monitoring is heading to the Arizona Attorney General’s office.

“Jennifer Wright — a former GOP mayoral candidate who once worked for the voter fraud alarmist group Verify the Vote — was hired as an assistant attorney general who will be focused on election integrity, KPNX, the NBC local news affiliate in Phoenix, reported Monday."

And now for the REALLY fun part: "Verify the Vote was a partner of the more well-known Houston-based group, True the Vote, which sprung from the Tea Party organization King Street Patriots. In addition to its poll watcher campaign, True the Vote also advocates for restrictive election laws like voter ID."

Sounds like our kind of gal!

So now we wait. It’s gonna be a FUN week! The good news from Kari Lake yesterday:

Kari Lake @KariLake

My message to the People of Arizona & the United States:

Let’s hear again what Kari said: “Attorneys are working diligently to gather information. Whistleblowers are coming forward, and the curtain is being lifted. Whether done accidentally or intentionally, it is clear that this election was a debacle that destroyed any trust in our elections … I will continue fighting until we restore confidence and faith in our elections.”

I believe you, Kari. And I’m with you.

To wrap up, let’s have a little chuckle from our friends at the Babylon Bee, who are BACK ON TWITTER.

GIDDY UP, Patriots!

Badlands Media articles and features represent the opinions of the contributing authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Badlands Media itself.

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